


Prism: Book 1

by prismthebook



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bounty Hunters, F/F, LGBT, LGBTQ Female Character, Multi, Science Fiction, space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 127,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23745805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prismthebook/pseuds/prismthebook
Summary: Part 1: In the DarkThe elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend statusthroughout the galaxy.  Its teammates, known only by theircodenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected orfeared women across all star systems, depending on whether youhired them or they are after you.  Over eight novellas, follow as theteam hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigatescriminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more.  This story combinesLGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,and figure out who they can really trust.
Kudos: 2





	1. Prism Part 1: Into the Dark

A wet sound, heavier than water, drips down and echos through the dark cave as three women quietly wade through knee high liquid.

“Why would you even apply to an assault team if you can’t shoot?” T’s voice rang out to her companions as she wiped away a large drop that had just landed on her blue hair.

“T, we are not doing this right now.” The woman to T’s left whispered back. “And keep your voice down!” She moved forward a few steps glancing around them and T playfully stuck her tongue out at the pink dreadlocks bound at the back of her head. “C, can you read anything?” T turned to the woman on her right and watched as C shook her head, her blue-green skin shone in the light from a holowatch on her arm.

“Not yet.” They all fell silent and continued through the cave.

“I’m just saying, S, that it seems like a weird fit,” T voiced again.

“T, you lost the vote. We’ve had this argument over and over and over. I’m done. We have hired a new M,” the pink braids flipped over S’s shoulder as she whipped her head around to glare at T, “Now can you please focus?!” 

“Besides I know you think she’s cute,” C teased. T turned to her friend whose double pointed ears peeked out from her short silvery hair.

“Being attractive does not make you qualified for an assault team.”

“Yeah, that’s why you’re here,” joked S. 

T laughed, but quickly cut herself off, “Who needs to focus now?”

“Still you,” S muttered.

“You know the old M may have been a pain to get along with, but at least she could shoot.”

“She was only a pain to you,” C frowned, not looking up from her screen.

S groaned and whirled around, “Fine! You want to do this now? The old M is gone. She left weeks ago. It wasn’t a surprise. She warned us. Apparently spacecraft racing is better than this!” She waved her hand wide gesturing to the damp cave. “We’re picking the new M up tomorrow. She is qualified for every other part of the mechanics and pilot job, and has a background in computer systems. You can teach her how to shoot a gun.”

C who had stopped to watch S’s tirade tilted her head and winked at T, “You know, get some one on one training time.” T rolled her eyes at her and then stared at the blue lines that flowed in waves from her shoulders down and blending into her pale skin on her forearm.

“Now can we keep hunting this thing?” S pleaded.

“I’m not trying to stop you,” T raised her eyebrows to the woman who she honestly did call a friend. S shook her head and they all continued down the dark passage way, once again in silence for another ten minutes. Nothing stirred, besides the ripples in the goo caused by the drips from the ceiling and the women slugging through it.

“This stuff will never come out of my shoes,” C sighed.

“Well… what if she’s a spy?” T took the opportunity of not being the one to break the silence to pounce back into the debate.

“A cute spy,” C still poking fun at her friend.

“Do you want to date her?”

“Not my thing, all yours,” C laughing and T joined in.

“There is no dating in Prism!” S called over the noise.

“S!” T scolded, but with a grin, “We’re trying to be quiet here!” C began to laugh again.

Visibly frustrated, S yet again whirled to face T, “We did a background check. If she’s a spy, then I’d still vote to hire her because that hacking job to hide it was impressive. Besides what possible reason would a spy have for joining this team?”

“We travel the universe! We catch fugitives! We work as security for important beings and important events; take down smuggling rings. We end up getting places most beings don’t even know about let alone get to see, it’s pretty much the PERFECT place for a spy!”

“Why would a spy not know how to shoot a gun?” C asked.

“If she’s a spy she could be lying about not being able to shoot a gun!”

“But that would mean that she does know how to shoot and your argument is invalid,” S pointed out.

“But she’d be a spy!”

“Incoming!” C shouted suddenly and pointed in the direction they had been walking.

“I don’t see anyth-” S began before a huge beast screeched at them as it swung down from the ceiling. Unfurling its wings, they cried out and shielded their eyes as light suddenly pierced through the darkness from bioluminescent veins radiating through its body.

S and C instinctively jumped back, causing the liquid to fly up and splash over the three of them. T stood her ground, as she whisked her gun from its holster at her belt and shot a plasma beam straight through the creature’s head. 

Its cry was cut short and in a long moment where time seemed to slow, they watched as its feet unlatched from the cave roof and the body fell, splashing into the muck at their feet, dousing them in it. No one moved as they settled into the fact of this liquid seeping over every part of each of their bodies.

“I need a shower,” S said, wiping away the yellow ooze from her dark brown skin.

“Agreed,” C intoned.

“Come on, let’s go tell the mayor guy that they don’t have to worry about this thing anymore,” T turned and with careful, uncomfortable movements began walking back in the direction they came, the two other women of Prism trailing behind. “See that’s why you need to know how to shoot a gun.”

“T, you know that I can shoot a gun right?” S said in barely more than a whisper.

“Yeah, and?”

“If you don’t stop whining, I’m going to shoot you.” Both T and C burst into laughter as they all walked out of the cave.

~

Inside the airspace dock on Antanger, it was oddly was quiet, but still held some hustle and bustle. The planet’s capital city Fillas was also its largest, but the private dock provided a seclusion and calm from the stress that usually came with travel. The glass ceiling covered the main terminal which allowed the sun to shine down into the pristine building. The floors and walls were a shiny marble with black and brown swirling lines running through. The combination of the sunshine and white surrounding made the whole building seem to glow. Beings could be seen getting food from a small restaurant, talking at tables, exchanging different planets’ currency, and making accommodations and travel arrangements. The new M sat near in the large seating area in the center, filled with rows of comfortable chairs though she was the only one there at the moment. C had sent ahead all of her travel arrangements, instructions where to meet, and notification of the number one policy: she would be called M, not by her actual name.

High above, Arthur pulled into orbit around the planet and the team flew their small shuttle, Art Two, down to meet their new M. S was the backup pilot for the team and the only one who could operate the craft. Once the new M got acquainted with Art Two, she would take over all piloting tasks. As they landed, S perfectly interlocked the door of the shuttle with the door on the station wall, like pieces of a large puzzle. C, sitting in the seat next to her used her holoscreen to transfer docking codes to the station and a green light illuminated on the main console. S turned dials down and switched off toggles on the dashboard. They could hear quiet whirring as Art Two’s engine slowed and shut off.

“All right, we are anchored,” S said, “Let’s go meet our new M, and T…” S stopped her blue-haired teammate as she made for the door. “I know you’re not happy about this and I know how you can get when you’re not happy. Can you be nice?” T hesitated, and glanced between the two other women before she answered.

“I didn’t vote for her, no promises.” S gave her a warning look in response and turned to stand in front of the door.

“At least don’t scare her off,” she finished the conversation by hitting a button on the side of Art Two’s door to open it, and the station’s door with it, and walking inside. It didn’t take long before, they spotted the being that matched the image in her file. She was a skinny human with light brown skin and long brown hair tied up in a ponytail. She was deep into reading the dossier of her new job off an old fashioned, handheld tablet and had not noticed them walk in. Her legs were crossed and she was sucking on her bottom lip absentmindedly as she read. 

“M?” S tested as they got close. The seated woman didn’t respond.

“She’s not used to it yet,” C guessed, smiling warmly. T leaned over tapped her on the shoulder, “M?”

M looked up and realized who the three women in front of her must be. She sprang to her feet and tossed the tablet on the seat next to her, “You’re here! Sorry, you were calling me M, right? That’s going to take a bit to get used to.”

“Don’t worry, we’re not used to you being M yet either. We’ll all get there. I’m C,” the woman held out her hand with long teal fingers and M shook it. M turned to the two other women and shook hands with S and T, who each introduced themselves as well. T gesturing to a couple small suitcases and a box next to M.

“Is all you have?” T asked.

“Yeah, I… travel light,” M asked awkwardly stepping towards her things.

“Well you’re not just traveling, you’re literally moving,” T said sharply. C elbowed her which T knew as a silent attempt to get her to be nice.

“Uh, yeah, I know. This is my stuff,” M nodded to her bags.

“Don’t worry about it,” S replied, “Just stand back.”

A confused M stepped away from her luggage as S activated her holo-screen watch and tapped it. Two tiny droids flew out Art Two’s doorway at top speed. They each positioned themselves at opposite sides of the luggage, facing each other. Out of each little droid’s front grew a blue-colored, clear barrier. It surrounded the luggage and connected in the middle. The suitcases and box began to float inside the bubble and the tiny droids, carried M’s luggage back through the door to the craft as it closed behind them. M’s eyes were wide.

“Impressive, I’ve only used selperms as safety barriers to work on the exteriors of space crafts.”

“We get a little creative with them,” T said dryly. S interjected before M could ask more questions on their technology.

“I hope you don’t mind jumping right in, but we have an appointment for a job consult with Infinity in 20 minutes.”

M grabbed her tablet and stood up straight, “I’m ready!” The women walked through the port to the exit. Through the glass doors they could see a busy city with flying vehicles organized in a multitude of different lines crowding the skies. S hit her holo-screen again as they exited the building through sliding glass doors. 

“I’ve called an Airpod, it will be here in a minute,” S said to the group. Before them lay a large avenue filled with water fountains, trees and benches. Beings of every size, skin and hair color of the rainbow walked up and down it. Above them beings crossed the boulevard through large glass tunnels that stretched between the buildings.

M gaped at the scenery above her, “I like that everything is airborne here. Back home we only have ground transportation.”

“Still?” T scoffed.

“They haven’t exactly caught up with the times on well… everything,” M described. S and C laughed at her joke, but T merely nodded.

“So, there’s roads?” S asked, looking very interested.

“The buildings don’t even touch, not like here,” M gestured down the avenue.

“Where are you from?” C asked.

“Oflabo,” M responded politely.

“Welp, never going there,” T said abruptly.

“Smart move,” M admitted. T, who wasn’t expecting the woman to agree with her, stared at her before snapping her lips shut and turning away to look at the beings milling about.

“Don’t mind her,” C advised M and pinched T’s upper arm.

“They’ve just got to use every inch of space since all the travel is by air now, don’t they?” M asked looking out over the walkway.

“Well they do have the nice walkways with the shopping. I wish we had more time here. Fillas has the best shopping in the system, extensive museums, and libraries, vertical forests! I have no idea what I’d choose to do first! Oh! The pod’s here,” S said looking down at her watch and then up to the sky where a metal box with rounded edges and large windows was descending on them.

“Wait,” T said and walked down the stairs toward the avenue.

“Where are you going? We don’t have time for this!” S called after her and then sighed. The pod landed in front and S put a foot inside to hold it there. They watched as T sidled up to bench where a kid was sitting with his hands in his pockets.

“What is she doing?” M asked.

“No idea, that’s normal, but she usually has a good reason, so we trust her,” C responded, shrugging. That question was answered a minute later when two beings dressed in fine attire walked by, laden with shopping bags. The kid jumped up and grabbed a purse off one of them. Another kid from the opposite side of the avenue ran up and grabbed another. 

Before the beings had a chance to yell for help, T stuck her leg out and tripped the first kid as he tried to escape. He didn’t have a chance to change course and toppled over. T jumped on top of his back and pulled his arms back to hold him down so he couldn’t get away. She looked down the avenue. The second kid was running full sprint toward the opposite end. She pulled her plasma gun out and beings screamed, scrambling to get out of the way. Aiming quickly and carefully, she shot the ground just in front of him. He let out a high pitched scream as he jumped back, tripping over his own feet. He crashed to the ground and one of the Authority officers that had already begun converging on the scene apprehended him.

As she put the gun away, T looked back down to the kid below her with a slight smile and said, “Stealing is wrong.” S rolled her eyes, but C, who had run down to try and help, giggled. An authority officer was approaching her with their own gun up, but C cautiously walked up to them with her hands raised.

“Sorry for the trouble officer, my friend and I are bounty hunters, if you just scan me I can prove it. The officer kept their gun up, but nodded to another officer who pulled out a small device the size of a thumb and passed it up and down in front of C. The officer’s holo-screen popped out of their watch and C’s bio appeared on the screen. It was limited, consisting of a photo on the with words “Authority Command Access Only” imprinted over it and to the right the words “Bounty Hunter: Prism Status”.

“Prism? I thought that was just a ghost story, but it’s real?,” the Authority officer said, lowering the scanner.

“We lay low,” T smirked and stood pulling the kid up, keeping his arms secure, “So you should probably keep your voice down so you don’t let everyone here know.”

“Shooting up a shopping avenue is “laying low?” the first Authority officer grumbled, putting their gun away.

“Yes, we’re real, and very sorry. Right, T?” C prompted her through gritted teeth.

“Super duper sorry,” T said, though unconvincingly, and with a smirk. The first officer rolled their eyes and relieved T of the kid, restraining him. 

“Next time maybe don’t do anything to be sorry for,” they snapped and stalked away with the other officer trailing behind still looking impressed.

“Can we please go?!” S called to them, “We’re going to be late!” T and C ran up the stairs and the four women climbed into the pod. “Infinity, please,” S said and the doors shut. 

The women settled into benches set into three sides of the pod as it rose above the surrounding structures and sped off toward a tall building in the middle of the city. Out of the windows they could see other pods traveling over the city at high speeds ducking and dodging each other and the lines of aircrafts if they got too close. 

“How did you know what they were doing?” M asked. T shrugged.

“It’s my job. I notice things like that. Plus they’re kids; they’re not that good. It was pretty obvious they were communicating with each other and scouting marks easy to hit.”

“Impressive,” M smiled.

“If impulsive,” S haughtily, but with a smile.

“Oh come on S,” T appealed, “They were stealing. I was helping. We catch bad beings.”

“T, just because you do something selfless, does not mean it’s not selfish,” S said.

“I think that’s the definition of ‘everybody wins’,” T said smirking.

“Except for us, who are now late, and the beings who have to clean up the spot of the avenue that you shot,” S pointed out.

“Oh, come on honey, let’s not fight in front of the kid,” T said tilting her head in M’s direction.

“The only one that resembles a kid here is you,” S snapped back. C laughed nervously and quickly looked at the window trying not to get involved. The whole team fell silent waiting to see what would happen next. 

“Well, this is fun,” M said slowly.

“They love each other, I promise,” C assured.

“Oh are you two…” M trailed off as she pointed back and forth to T and S.

“No!” They both cried in unison, looking horrified and C laughed loudly.

“I mean I don’t care if you are…” M looked down at her hands awkwardly.

“Think of it more like sisters,” C grinned.

"More like a mother," S grumbled under her breath.

“Ah, okay,” M nodded. The four fell silent, before M broke the heavy tension in the air, “Well you found out where I’m from, how about you?” She gestured to T, “Ongoro?”

“I feel like that’s obvious,” T gestured to her arms with the wavy blue lines running down them and bright hair.

“But part human?”

“Yup.” T snapped and leaned back folding her arms to show she no longer wanted to participate in the conversation. M caught on and moved on to C, “And you are Tarek?”

“Yes! Full-blooded!” C replied, much friendlier than T had.

“And Seem?” M asked the last team member.

S smiled at M’s correct guess, “Wow good guess. Barely, only one quarter, I just got the pink eyes and hair, the rest is human.”

“So ‘Infinity’?” M asked peering out the window at the building growing ever closer.

“Yes they have hired us several times before, it’s usually transportation of valuable packages or security work. This time though they’ve called us in on short notice which is strange,” S replied.

“Well that happened before when we had to protect the CEO from being kidnapped,” T pointed out.

“I didn’t hear about that,” M sounded intrigued.

“Well you wouldn’t since beings call us in when they don’t want everyone to know what’s going on. This is a covert team. There’s a reason we have codenames, ” T explained.

“Yeah I had some questions about that-” M started, but was interrupted by C who was too excited over memories of past adventures to notice.

“Remember that time Infinity gave us those Manular diamonds and that pirate group tried to board Art- that’s Arthur, our ship, that’s what we call him-” C interrupted herself to explain to M,  
“They started drilling the side of the ship and T took a plasma bazooka and blasted them off!”

T grinned with a reminiscent glint in her eyes, “Ah yeah, that was fun. Only problem was the bazooka left a bigger hole in Art than they did and M was really pissed!” Then realizing what she had said her smile disappeared, “Other M, not you, obviously-”

“We’re here!” S said a little too loudly giving T a pointed look who took the hint and snapped her mouth shut. The pod descended in front of a towering, glittering, glass building. When they walked into the lobby some beings stared for a moment. 

M noticed the staring and whispered, “Uh, why are they staring? I thought no one knew about Prism.” T jumped in before the either two could.

“Well depends on where we are. We’ve worked for beings here and they know us and maybe gossip a little; we’re popular in that way. It’s annoying.”

“And if we aren’t here?” M asked.

“Well we’ll either be recognized or not, like I said, here, not so bad. If we’re about to arrest someone, being recognized isn’t great,” T smiled derisively and sped up to walk with S.

Suddenly, C squealed, “Anthon!” M look up to see a being that was at least fifteen feet tall and six arms on either side. C ran over and hugged their torso that was no bigger in width than her leg. They had to bend their rounded head down, but was able to wrap all six arms around C.

They stood back up which seemed to take a very long time and said, “Welcome back ladies. Maion is ready for you.”

“I apologize for being late. T got caught up,” S said, shaking one of their hands.

“No, don’t worry I saw a news report about the little ordeal on the shopping avenue and figured you were involved. Did you win?”

“Of course,” T said and shook a hand as well.

“And... ah, you have a new M?” Anthon asked.

M didn’t know which of its hands to shake so she just awkwardly waved, “As of about 10 minutes ago.”

“Nice to meet you; this way.” Anthon’s four extremely short and skinny legs moved unexpectedly fast, leading them over to the lift that took them straight to the office of Infinity’s president and CEO, Maion Datro. When the lift doors opened, Maion was distracted, moving a webbed, pure white finger around on a holo-screen. Her face was the same stark white with a few yellow stripes that led up and back to thick strip of bright yellow hair starting on the middle of her head and flowing down her back.

Maion turned her black eyes over to them and said, “Come in Prism. Unfortunately I don’t have time for pleasantries as I’m late for a meeting, but this is urgent.” S shot an annoyed look at T who ignored it as the team walked over and stood in front of the screen. All friendly demeanors for Anthon disappeared and were replaced with strictly professional dispositions with the president. Maion hit a button on her tablet and the wall behind her desk pixelated, changing to an image of a deathly pale being.

“This is Stock Rebin. He worked in our experimental sciences department until two days ago when he stole research and left the planet,” She informed them, “We have no idea what he wants to do with it or why he suddenly decided to take it, but it needs to be recovered immediately. This department has tight security and most of our research is only known to the beings who work in the labs. I don’t even really know what goes on down there, I just know we need that information back before he sells it to a competitor.”

“You definitely know he’s going to sell it?” S prompted. Maion shrugged.

“I can’t think of any other reason why he’d steal it. Our medical and technological breakthroughs are huge earners for our company. Any other competitor would kill to get their hands on it. I have all the information for you on this.” She handed C a small circular disk the size of an eye.

“He’s been spotted on his home planet, Travia, as recently as this morning, but I doubt he’ll be there long. Hate to cut this short, but as I said I need to go. I need this done fast, preferably before this time tomorrow,” Maion returned the screen behind her desk to the image of a wall and moved to a door at the side of her office.

“We’ll let you know when we have him,” T told her.

“Good to hear. Anthon can take you back downstairs,” Maion turned and pressed a few random spots on the door. It slid opened and she disappeared through it. M turned to her new partners.

“Are all meetings that fast?”

“I wish,” C answered, holding up the metal disk, “Let’s go and have a look at this background file.”

~

While S flew them back to Arthur while M studied the shuttle’s specifics, C reviewed the disk on her holoscreen in order to brief the team on the type of species and the being they would be after this time. When they finally reached the ship, the women all seated themselves around the large table in the common area. C inserted the small drive into the side of the table and tapped a few buttons on her holo-screen watch to make a holographic image of Stock Rebin appear in the middle of the table.

“Rebin is a native Travian. They like the dark and the cold, their skin is basically translucent, and they’re very fast,” C explained. She touched a button on her holo-screen and the holograph changed to a dark planet, “As Maion said, he seems to have gone back home. He probably thinks he’s safer there and he’s not wrong. It’s is almost always dark. It has one hour of sunlight on one specific part of the planet, which is not the part where Rebin seems to be, so we’ll be blind.” S leaned onto the table and turned to T.

“All right, T what’s the best plan for that?” The Ongori was leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed staring at the holographic planet. She rolled her head around to look at S. She new her teammate knew what she would suggest, but could tell she was going through this extra step for M’s sake, in learning how they work. 

“Well if he’s that fast and it’s that dark, our best bet will probably be to draw him out and grab him with The Tube.”

“What is The Tube?” M cut in. T smiled slyly at her.

“Our last mechanics expert invented it. You saw it in the hanger when we came in. It’s one of our smaller ships that has a selperm attached to the bottom. You can send extra controllers out to change the selperm into a tube and then you basically suck someone up into it. So you’ll be driving, sound good?” M smiled back with a look that showed she had no intention of backing down to T’s intimidation tactics.

“Sounds great,” she said dryly. T continued with her tactical analysis. 

“C knows this species and can see pretty well in the dark so she and I can go down on the ground to draw him out. S, you can ride in The Tube and work the selperm with M, who can fly after him and pick him up.” 

M turned back to C, “What’s the terrain like?” C once again hit her holo-screen and a holograph of a dark city popped up on the table.

“He’s been sighted in a large city, just with no lights, anywhere, at all, so it looks… creepy,” T gave a quick scoff and the team all looked at her with differing level of confusion etched on their faces.

“You said he’s been sighted... in the dark. I mean, from our point of view it’s kinda funny,” T explained and paused waiting for someone to see the hilarity, “Or not, never mind.” The rest of the team turned back to the task at hand.

“So I’ll be flying through a city in the dark?” M asked.

“The Tube has second sight,” S assured her. 

T started in on further explanation, “You know where the computer reads the shapes of-”

M interrupted, “Your surroundings and gives you a digital readout on a computer? Yes, as a pilot who has flown literally any ship in the last ten years, I know what second sight is.”

“Well Travia may be close,” S interrupted, “but we still have about two hours before we get there, so how about a ship tour? T, you can do it.”

“What?” T spat. T had known S long enough to read the look S was giving her. She thought it was amazing how her eyes could perfectly convey that she wanted T to stop being a brat and be nice and she was going to keep making her do things with the new M until she complied.

“No it’s fine,” M assured her, “She doesn’t have to if she-”

“No, let’s go,” T said quickly jumping up. M froze, momentarily shocked, at the sudden change in T’s enthusiasm. T walked over to the lift which opened automatically for her to walk in. “Are you coming?”

“I guess….” M said and gave C and S a slightly nervous look. She didn’t know any of these women and T seemed like someone who would kill her and not blink twice. C and S gave her the most reassuring smiles they could and M joined T in the lift before the door slid closed in front of them.

“You are evil in the best way,” C grinned at S. S sighed, but smiled back.

“I don’t want to be. I shouldn’t have to be. I should have have act like her mother and tell her to get along with the new kid.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“What if this is like last time? The fights she and the last M had were destructive. Literally, that one time.”

“I don’t think it will be like that,” C said soothingly, “M was a hot head, T can be too, but this new one doesn’t seem to be like that. She gives me the impression that she wouldn’t start a fight, but she will finish one, and not in a bad way, but in a way that T will respect. I think….” S sighed again as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, putting her head in her hands.

“I really hope you’re right.”

~

“So the ship is too big to travel down to planets so we take Art Two and The Tube down, you saw both of those already,” T explained as the lift travelled down, “The ship is officially called Arthur, but like C said earlier we just call him Art.”

“Why is it shaped like this?” M asked.

“Like... what?”

“Like a giant version of those old spinning top toys?” M continued.

“No idea,” T said brusquely, “Anyway, the top dome has that common area we were just in plus all our sleeping quarters. We each get our own bedroom and bathroom which is nice because I really like my own space.”

“Me too,” M said slowly, though T was speaking so quickly M was feeling like she couldn’t keep up. She figured T was doing that on purpose to keep her on her toes to see if she slipped up, and was determined to not let that happen.

“Right, so Art can give you whatever you need, he runs everything, from food, to information gathering, medical stuff. If you need your shower even two degrees hotter, tell Art, he’s got ya.”

“Okay,” M nodded. The lift doors opened and they walked into small room with clear glass walls and ceiling with door on one side that led to a small clear chamber and another clear door on the other side.

“This is C’s library,” T pointed through the chamber.

“It’s empty?” M looked through the glass, confused.

“Nah, there’s giant computer screen covering the wall all the way around. The room doesn’t have gravity which is why it has an adjustment chamber. C will float up there all day working. Basically don’t go in unless she’s there.”

“Okay,” M said again and with that T marched back to the lift. M quickly followed, the door shut again and they descended.

“As you saw from the outside, the ship basically funnels down to the bottom where it kind of widens out. Half of that is the hangar and half is your engine room. The lift sits in the middle and all the rooms kinda wrap around it and form the outer ring of the ship,” T continued. The lift door opened again and T didn’t step out so M copied her. The room was small with two cells sitting side by side.

“Cells for any prisoner transports. They each have a door to the outside so we just catch them with the selperm in The Tube and just transfer them in here before we even enter the ship.”

“That’s amazing!” M looked around the room in astonishment.

“Yeah, kind of new feature, couple years, but it works well,” T said. She closed the lift door and they continued down. Once again the lift door opened, but T didn’t enter the room. M peered out where she could see a section of a large circular room. To her left was a glass wall where she could see part of a scientific lab, and on her right, a few hospital beds were spaced out along the outer wall and disappeared around the side.

“This is the med lab,” T gestured, “S is usually here, and if anything is wrong she’ll fix you, like immediately. She experiments on treatments and has gotten to the point where she can heal humans like you as fast as I heal on my own.”

“Do you have the full Ongoro healing?” M asked.

“Not completely, but I still heal faster than humans and as long as my adrenaline is up, I can’t feel pain.”

“How’d you know I was human?”

“It was in your application,” T said, as though it was obvious.

“So it will show my species, but not my name,” M said sardonically.

“Them’s the rules,” T said, obviously annoyed with M’s continued questioning. The lift door shut, and they were traveling down again. When the doors opened T walked out with a wide smile, spreading her arms.

“And we’ve reached the best room in the place, the training gym.” M followed her out and found herself in a room where half the floor was covered in soft mats, the other half with hard rubber flooring, which circled behind the lift to the left.

“So I know the common area has that big, well you can’t really call it a ‘skylight’ in space, but that’s basically what it is, right?” T shrugged and nodded in agreement. “So does any other room on the ship have windows?” M turned in a circle to look around the outer walls of Art.

“Yeah, our rooms do. The whole outer wall up there is a nice big window. It’s actually pretty cool to just lay in bed and look up and out. Especially when we’re approaching a planet from below.” T pressed a section of wall to M’s right and a few panels flipped around, revealing a large armory of guns.

“Uh, what are those for?” M said nervously, backing away a few steps.

“Wow, relax. I did the tour, now you get to have a gun lesson,” T grabbed two pairs of safety goggles and handed one to M.

“Ah, I’m guessing that’s why you were suddenly so excited to give me this tour,” M sighed as she pulled the goggles it over her head, covering her eyes. 

“Like I said earlier, everybody wins,” T said as she put the other set on and propped them on her forehead. 

“I mean you haven’t technically showed me what is kind of the most important part…. the engine room, because, you know, I’ll be working there most of the time.”

T waved her had as she returned to the armory wall, “You saw the hangar and stuff when you came in, we’ll get to it later.” T pulled out a smaller gun and loaded a clip into it. “Now these plasma guns have two settings, number one, that just knocks someone out and number two, kill. We rarely use kill, and you…. yeah, we’ll work with setting one today,” she pointed at the plasma refill clips, “Plasma clips can last a very long time, but they aren’t everlasting. We won’t worry about learning to change them right now. Art, can I get two training ranges please?” 

Immediately two sections of wall further to M’s right, flipped over to reveal bullseyes. Parts of the floor flipped over and was now marked with two bright red Xs. T stepped up to a red X on the floor that was line with one of the targets and gave some easy beginner tips. “Feet shoulder width apart, both eyes open, both hands on the gun.” She pulled the goggles down over her eyes and M did the same. “Just squeeze the trigger.” T shot at a round target which to M’s surprise, rippled, absorbing the blast and leaving a bright red circle, the size of her fingernail to show where it hit. Then she shot a few more times, all hit within an inch of the target’s center. “And when you’re done, always switch the safety back on. Here, stand on this other X.”

M stepped up to the second X about 4 feet to T’s right, and squared her feet and shoulders. T handed her the gun. M switched off the safety and raised it, holding it in both hands like T had shown her. She took a deep breath, both eyes lining up her shot down the barrel of the gun, and slowly squeezed the trigger. It was harder to pull back than she thought. Finally, the gun fired. It didn’t have too much of a kick, but enough to throw off her aim. It hit far from the center. She tried a few more shots which landed all over her target. She clicked the safety on and lowered the gun, sighing.

“Art please refresh the targets,” T requested. The sections of wall rippled again and the red dots disappeared, good as new. M took their short break as time to ask a few questions, “So why do you go by letters for codenames?”

“Like I said earlier, we’re a covert team. It keeps our identities secure while out in the field. Doing what we do, we don’t have a lot of beings who like us,” T explained.

“But even on the ship?” M pried.

T pointed at M’s feet. “Shoulder width apart. It was set so we don’t have to remember to call each other one name here and another out the field. It’s just easier that everyone is their codename.” M squared her feet again just as the new targets emerged. T switched her focus back to training. “Try again, look straight down the barrel with both eyes open.” M shot again and she got a little closer to the center on the left. “Better,” T assured her. M continued with her earlier questions.

“But why letters? And why are you T?”

“Is this training or interrogation?” T said, obviously irritated, but her trainee was not deterred and stared her down. They weren’t going to get anywhere unless she just answered M’s questions, “It’s for our expertise. T is tactical, M is Mechanics, S is Scientific, and C is Computers and Culture.

“Why use the human English alphabet?” M glanced from the blue wavy lines on T’s arms up to her blue hair.

T sighed, exasperated and turned away. She leaned back against a wall of the lift and crossed her arms, “I don’t know. I didn’t make it up. And I don’t really care why.”

“And you’re all friends?” M asked.

“The best, most of the time.”

“But none of you know each other’s names?”

“Nope. Names aren’t so important, as long as someone can do their job well. Speaking of, we’re getting distracted, shoot again.” M shot the gun and the plasma blast hit the other side of the target. T sighed, “Well at least you’re consistent.” M dropped the gun to her side and turned around to face T.

“Why are you so obsessed that I know how to shoot?”

“Safety on!” T directed and jumped forward to switch the little knob on the side of M’s gun. They were barely a foot apart and T glared into M’s face. “These jobs we go on are dangerous,” T explained, “I need to trust that the beings at my side can hold their own and they’ll be able to have my back if I need it.” M didn’t back down and squared her shoulders, stepping closer to T so they were only a couple inches apart. She didn’t glare like T was, but her face was set in a steely expression.

“I’m a pilot and that’s why I was hired. You may get into danger, but I can get you out of it. And I’m sure you know better than anyone, guns aren’t the only way to fight. If this ship can drop a boxing ring in here then I’ll show you what I can do. I can have your back without being able to shoot a gun.” A ping sounded from above and they both turned their heads as, across the room, a punching bag dropped from the ceiling. M gave a small laugh and turned back to T. “I think he agrees with me.” T didn’t look back immediately and didn’t say anything as she backed away from M. When she finally looked back, she didn’t look happy, but at least wasn’t glaring anymore as she gestured to the target.

“Try again.”

~

“You can pretty much wear what you want for missions as long as you can work in it,” S explained to M. They were close to Travia and everyone was changing for the mission. S was in M’s room, helping her get ready, “Like this time C and T will be wearing all black so they blend in. We shouldn’t have to leave The Tube on this job so we can wear whatever we want; as long as you can move easily and fight in it. What you’re wearing should be fine. Art can print clothes for us so if you’d like anything for future missions, just ask.” M looked down to her dark blue shirt and black pants ending in flat lace up boots that hit just above her ankles. She looked to S, and saw she was wearing tan ankle boots with a slight heel and tight pants of the same color that looked as though they were tailored for her. They were paired with a dark green turtleneck and ended in her dark curly hair pulled back into a ponytail resting on the crown on her head.

“Did Art print those for you?” M asked.

“Uh, kind of,” S looked a little sheepish, “I saw this outfit on the runway for one of my favorite designers and C sort of replicated the design and downloaded it into Art’s system. I mean it’s not completely the same so it wouldn’t count as stealing. Contrary to her words S’s cheeks blushed and sounded as though she were trying to convince herself more than M. “I mean it was a gift, which I appreciate, but also asked her not to do it again. Also here,” S quickly changed the subject and handed M a belt with several small cloth compartments. 

M strapped it around her waist as S explained, “Utility belt, put whatever you need on it. T says once you’re gun trained she’ll put the holster back on. Also here’s this,” S handed her a small earpiece and a new holo-watch, “The watch should be ready to go, you’ll see there are some features that are exclusive to us, anyone who has been our ‘C’ over the years has added their own little upgrades. And this is your comm,” S gestured to the earpiece, “It also has a built in tracker in case we lose you. You ready?” M put the comm in her ear and the watch on her wrist and nodded. The left the room and climbed into the lift.

“Hanger, please,” S said and they descended. When the door opened they found T and C across the room wearing closely cropped but comfortable black pants and shirts with black boots resembling her own. Both had plasma guns strapped to their side. T also had night vision glasses propped on top of her head where her blue hair was tied back into a ponytail.  
As they walked over to them, M recognized Art Two that they flew in from Artanger, but past is sat a slightly smaller craft that M didn’t have a chance to closely examine earlier. The outside was a dark matte gray with sleek design obviously built for speed. The bottom was completely flat as to accommodate a selperm holding cell there. 

They climbed in the small door on the left side and T and C got strapped into two of the back seats which were set against the far side of the craft facing the door. M headed for the pilot’s seat. When she sat down, she started flipping switches and tuning instruments that she was familiar with to turn on the ship. The Tube started humming with life. S sat next to her in the passenger seat and showed her where to turn on the second sight. A little monitor with a clear screen flipped out from the left near M’s head and green lines began to outline the objects in Art’s hanger. S settled into her seat and strapped in.

“As the front passenger, I’ll work the selperm so you can focus on flying.”

“Perfect,” M pulled her own safety restraints over her shoulders and buckled them to a strap in between her legs, “Ready?”

She looked back to T and C who nodded. S hit a button on the dash and the craft door closed. As soon as it sealed airtight, the hanger wall to their right opened, replaced by a selperm barrier that kept everything in the hanger from being sucked out into space. They could barely see the planet ahead, as it was almost as black as the empty space around it. M slowly pulled the throttle and The Tube shot up a few feet off the floor of the hanger. Exclamations of shock and gasps came from the women around her. 

“Whoa this thing is sensitive,” M’s voice rose with excitement, “This is going to be fun.” She slowly navigated out of the hanger through the selperm barrier. With the hanger wall closing back up behind them, she thrust the throttle forward. Everyone was thrown against their restraints making M grin as the shuttle sped off down to the planet.

As they entered the atmosphere the windows of the craft went from empty black to a cloudy dark gray. M focused on the second sight and she began to see outlines of a city below. She tilted her head toward the back of the craft and asked, “All right C, where am I headed?” C looked down at her holo-screen said, “His last known residence was in the southeast quadrant of the city.” M tilted the steering column to the right. C watched their progress from the tracking software on her holo-screen, “A little more north... here! This building! T and I can get off here.” M hovered about 3 feet off the roof of a tall building. T pulled on the night vision glasses. T pressed a finger to her comm.

“You reading us?”

“Heard,” S responded through her own ear piece. T nodded.

“And I hear you. All right, let’s go.”

T pressed a button to the left of the door and it opened. C jumped the short drop to the roof. T followed and S hit a button on the front dash that closed the door behind them. M raised the craft a little and hovered waiting for their next move. Through the glasses, T could see C pointing to a door by the side of the building.

“The way inside is here, we’ll head down to his place and see if he’s there.”

“Guns out, setting one,” T flipped the safety switch off and checked the intensity switch while C did the same. Each of the women held the guns to the side of their torso pointing down as C opened the door and led the way inside. 

They quietly descended down two flights of stairs to a door with a large number 15 on it and into a hallway with two doors on either side. She pointed at the second on the left and then quietly moved to the far side of the door, pressing her back against the wall. T moved to the opposite side of the door and did the same. C pressed her ear to the wall, pulled away and shook her head to indicate she couldn’t hear anything.

C pulled at the edge of a panel set into the wall next to the door and it easily swung open. She inserted a small drive into a socket behind the panel. A moment later a green light on the panel illuminated and the door slid open. They peered into the apartment, but couldn’t see anyone. C retrieved her drive and closed the wall panel as T slid around the door frame. Silently, she carefully stepped to her left inside the apartment, gun at the ready. C followed and turned to her right. 

C found herself in a small kitchen that looked like it hadn’t been used in weeks, though not on purpose. There were dirty dishes in the sink waiting to be cleaned. She opened the refrigerator to find food slowly rotting. T creeped slowly through an empty living room. She saw a door leading to another room and tapped her comm to get C’s attention and gestured for her to join her. Raising their guns, they drew closer and the door opened automatically to reveal a bedroom with a bald, ghostly white, shaking figure sitting on the edge of the bed. He leaned over his knees like he was going to be sick. The being was so skinny that C wondered when was the last time he ate. He looked up at them with lamp like eyes that glowed faintly.

“Stock Rebin?” T asked. The being blinked up at her as T took tentative steps into the room.

“How did you get in my apartment?” The being asked. C moved in behind T.

“Are you Stock Rebin?” T asked again. The being’s eyes flicked from T to C and then down to the guns at their sides. His shaking increased.

“Yes, I- yes. What does it matter? You’re just going to kill me. I think? No, that’s not happening anymore,” Rebin’s voice sounded more like he was talking to himself than to T and C. The women exchanged nervous glances at his words before responding.

“We’re not here to kill you. We’ve been contracted by Infinity to bring you back and return the information you stole. If you come calmly, it will be better for you,” T explained. C didn’t realize it was possible, but Rebin’s shaking increased again and his mouth dropped open. His lamp-like eyes widened 

“Infinity? Stole information? I- I didn’t steal anything. I am the information, they need me!” His voice shook now too.

“You can explain everything to law enforcement when we get back to Artanger. Right now, you need to come with us,” T responded calmly, but sternly.

“T…?” C glanced over to T and lowered her gun slightly. “This isn’t right.”

“No, I’m not going with you. This is real. This is real and I’m not going back. They can figure out their project without me,” Stock rose off the bed, but only got a few inches up before T raised his gun and aimed for his chest.

“Stock, don’t move or we will shoot,” she warned. 

“You are here to kill me,” Stock whispered.

“No, it will only knock you out, but we will shoot,” C warned and raised her gun back up as well, but seemed hesitant.

Stock lunged at T, and C shot, but he moved too fast and it missed him. Stock pushed T’s gun upward so her own shot went straight through the ceiling. T kicked out at Stock’s leg and connected with his knee. He yelled and pushed past her into the living room, ripping the gun out of her hand. T whirled and grabbed his arm that held the gun and punched him in the face. He lashed out wildly with his other hand and hit T’s face. In the process, his hand found the night vision glasses. He grabbed them and tossed them in a corner. They all heard the crack and knew they had broken. T still had a hold of his arm and she brought it down on her knee. He cried in pain and dropped the gun. C had followed them out and was trying to find a clear shot. T dropped down to grab the gun, which she had to fumble for since she couldn’t see anymore.

“To your left!” C called and T’s hand connected with the metal of her gun. Stock used this chance to run out the front door, turning right. “He’s heading for the stairs!” The two women, guns in hand, bolted out the front door and to the stairwell. Stock was running down the stairs as fast as he could, the women close behind. Without the night vision glasses, the stairwell was almost pitch black for T. She found the railing and trailed her hand on it as she ran to make sure she didn’t run into a wall. 

C pressed her earpiece as she ran, “Stock is heading down the stairs, we’ll have him in the open in a minute.” But instead of continuing down the stairs, Stock charged through a door on the 8th level. The women followed and realized they were outside. C could see it was some sort of activities area for the building, but all T could see was Stock’s skin that almost glowed bright white in the darkness. She charged after him. “T! No! Wait!”

It was too late. T was on Rebin’s heels when she heard C cry out. She saw Stock leap into the air and before she could stop, she slammed into a short wall. She flipped over it and fell into empty air. As T realized she must have gone over the edge of the building and was now pelting toward the ground, she saw The Tube swing into view above her. The bottom selperm was already formed and a part of it was stretching out towards her. She reached out to it and just before she hit the ground, she touched the edge. it sucked her up into the clear blue bubble attached to the ship. The Tube accelerated back up, above the buildings. 

T floated inside the bubble, breathing heavily from adrenaline and shock. Through her earpiece she heard M say, “Told you I could have your back.” T rolled her eyes a little while she pressed her ear piece, “Yes, and while appreciated can you let me into the ship please?” A trapdoor opened just above her and S’s face smiled down at her.

“Welcome!” S chimed and reached out a hand. T grabbed it and was pulled into the ship. They were still hurtling through the air as S and T closed the trapdoor and carefully made their way to the front of the ship. S sat back down and strapped in while T grabbed a handle on the ceiling just behind M’s chair to keep herself steady.

“Where’s C?” she asked.

“Still following Stock and we’re right on their tail,” M responded. She pointed at the second sight where they could see two figures, shaped like C and Stock, running along the top of buildings, occasionally jumping when the roof level changed. Through the front windshield they could intermittently see a plasma blast toward Stock, but unfortunately the jumping and running made it hard for C to aim. M brought The Tube down and hid on the top of a row of buildings towering just next to the chase. She maneuvered it easily, hugging as close to their roofs as possible.

“He still has no idea the ship is here, right?”

“As far as we know,” S responded absently, concentrating on tracking the two beings below on her holoscreen. M was looking for a place to pull ahead and grab him with the selperm, but before she could, he reached a low enough building to make a 4 story leap to the ground.

“C’s going to lose him. She can’t make that jump,” S pointed out.

“Hold on,” M responded. She swooped the ship down to C, as T hit the button to open the door and C hopped on.

“Hey, you’re alive,” she joked and gave T a soft slap on the arm. T winked back and grinned. While C climbed on M had continued quietly, but quickly followed Stock as he ran down a wide walkway. T hit the door’s button again and joined C who had taken a place behind M and S. They watched as he ran under a bridge for cover.

“Get lower to the ground,” T moved back to the door, “I can open the door and shoot him from here.” She pulled an extra pair of night vision glasses out of a box labelled, ‘Equipment’ at the back of The Tube.

“I’ve got this. Strap in,” M rebutted. T, S, and C shared a look, but M turned to them with a defiant look. “I got this, I swear. Come on, before we lose him! T sighed, but she and C sat and strapped in. They both leaned out as far the restraints would let them so they could see what was happening. M sat the ship quiet and still for a moment and then pushed the throttle all the way up. The Tube shot forward and M steered it into a dive headed straight for the ground. 

“What are you doing?!” S screamed over the sound of the roaring engines as she gripped the front dash with white knuckles. M pulled up just in time and the ship flew right underneath the bridge. Stock ran out from under the bridge toward the way they had come from, looking panicked. M pulled up in a loop to head back towards the ground, racing after Stock.

“Get the selperm!” M shouted as she flew right over him. S gathered her wits enough to activate the selperm tube. The little bots that controlled the shape of the selperm reached him easily and enveloped him, just as they had done to T minutes before. He was pulled up towards the ship and the selperm reformed into a rounded bubble on the bottom of The Tube. Stock Rebin floated inside, finally trapped. M pulled the ship up and slowed down. M threw off her seatbelt in excitement and whipped around in her seat grinning at the other Prism members.

“Got him!” She yelled in excitement. S was taking deep breaths with her eyes closed. C and T looked at M as though they were questioning her sanity, but while T glared, C was grinning from double pointed ear to ear.

“Should we expect you to try and kill us on every mission?” T snapped angrily, but she couldn’t hide the impressed expression on her face.   
M shrugged and smiled, “It’s one of my many skill sets, and remind me, who was the one that caught your ass after it fell off a building?” C snorted as T attempted to hide a smile.

“I’m going to throw up,” S groaned.

The ship went quiet again as they all braced for vomit, but S didn’t throw up and after a moment C broke the uncomfortable tension.

“Well, on her very first mission M caught us the fugitive, I don't think anyone here has ever done that. Even you, T,” C grinned as T noncommittally smacked her in the stomach with the back of her hand. M laughed and S managed to chuckle softly. Even T couldn’t hide a smirk, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she glanced up to M, but quickly looked away. M continued to look at T a moment longer, not sure what she expected, before turning back around in her seat. Once again she pushed the throttle forward, though not as fast or as far this time, and The Tube smoothly headed up, away from the planet and back to Art.

~

An hour later everyone had showered, changed, and put artillery away. Before they returned to the hanger M had flown them to the side of Art while S pressed a few buttons and a small section outer wall opened. Another selperm tube from inside reached out and connected with the one attached to the ship. The bubble holding Stock detached from the bottom of the smaller craft and pulled him inside the large ship. The wall of the ship closed back up and Stock found himself inside an airlock at first before an inside door opened to reveal a small cell. The selperm disappeared leaving him captive for the trip back to Artanger.

Now in the common area, S was sending a message to Infinity to let them know they were on their way with Stock Rebin. M sat a the table on the other side of room flipping through her Prism introduction dossier. C and T entered the room through the lift.

“Clean bill of health?” S asked.

“Yep, perfect,” C plopped down on a couch with her arm over her eyes.

“What?” M asked.

“If any of us get into an altercation while on a job, then no matter how minor it was, we have Art run a overall health check when we get back,” T explained as she crossed the room and stood next to M. M gave her a baffled look. Not only did she answer a question without protesting, but T was now standing next to her without looking annoyed; or as annoyed as usual. T took a deep breath before looking up into M’s face. “Thank you and I’m sorry.” M was at a loss for words and gaped at T for a long moment. T stood frowning at her. She didn’t look particularly thankful or sorry, but she wasn’t glaring. M could see the bright blue spot on T’s face where Stock had managed his lucky hit, but it was already tinged yellow, healing quickly just as T said it would.

“For?” M asked.

“The ‘thank you’ is for saving my life,” T answered.

“I figured that, but why are you sorry?” M asked. Out of the corner of her eye she could see both S and C watching the exchange with rapt attention.

“For being… kind of... rude,” T shrugged and struggled to say the words in a way that made M think she didn’t say them very often.

“Really?” M responded apprehensively. T sighed.

“I had a lot of issues with our last M, we didn’t exactly get along and she was the only M I’ve worked with before.” She looked over to S and C, who nodded. “So when we hired you I think I just  
carried those feelings over to you. Especially because I felt like you were unqualified and not the candidate I voted for.” S quickly cleared her throat to interrupt T.

“Uh… is that supposed to make me feel better?” M asked.

“No. It’s just the truth,” T shrugged. 

“Oh boy,” C muttered.

“Anyway,” said pointedly sitting down in her seat at the table, “you were right, you can have my back without gun. In fact,” she smirked and her eyes glinted with humor, “it’s probably better that you don’t go out with a gun right now, considering your training session earlier.” The smile grew in a grin, and M could see only see a glimmer of contempt. Instead it almost seemed like T was joking with her.

“Well I still want to train more.”

“Oh yeah, we definitely need to do that,” T tone turned slightly abrasive again, but she seemed to realize after the fact and pressed her lips together. M decided not to comment on it.

“Well,” C walked up to the table, “that was only slightly awkward and only slightly a bad apology.” She laughed, placing a hand on T’s shoulder.

“Aw, I’m growing,” T grinned at her self mocking.

“Yes, good start,” S came over and sat at the table with them, “Now that that’s over with, can you tell me what happened in that apartment? Over the comms, it sounded very strange.”

“In person it was very strange,” C told her and walked around the table to sit in her own seat, across from T.

“It seemed like he wasn’t all there, like he wasn’t really talking to us,” T explained.

“Why would Infinity hire a scientist who acted like that?” M asked.

“Well I assume he didn’t always act like that,” C said.

“There could be a number of reasons,” S elaborated, “He could be working on dangerous research that affected him. Perhaps he struggles from some mental health symptoms and went off or changed medications too quickly.”

“It really didn’t feel right,” C squirmed in her chair, “I almost feel bad giving him to Infinity without analyzing that more.”

“Well I can call our Authority contact. Let him know what happened, see if they can help,” S suggested.

“Yeah good idea,” C nodded, “I’ll do some digging of my own, maybe look into his past, see if there’s anything there.”

“I’m sure Infinity takes good care of their own,” T shrugged, “If it is something to do with his research then they are the best to deal with it. We did our job and what was asked of us. They can take it from here.”

“I hope so,” C sighed.

“How about some food?” S asked, “Might help you feel better.” C nodded.

“Oh yeah, how do you get food?” M asked suddenly. T chuckled.

“Just ask him, T pointed vaguely at the ceiling, “Like, uh, hey Art, can I get some dinner?” There was a whirring sound from the table. A circular piece in the center dipped below for a moment and when it rose again it carried a tray with utensils and a hot plate of food. T grabbed it and offered it to M, but she hesitated to take it.

“Oh that’s it? Can I ask for specific food?”

“If you want something specific, otherwise Art will just pick. He changes it up everyday,” T explained. 

“Okay, C, you can have that one, if you want, I want to try.” T nodded and offered the tray to C who took it and began to eat. 

M braced herself, feeling a little silly and apprehensively asked, “Uh… Art, can I have dinner please?” Once again they heard the whirring sound and another tray with an almost identical meal to the one C was eating rose up in the middle of the table. “Nice!” M grabbed it and pulled it toward herself.

“That actually smells really good,” S said.

“Two more of those please, Art,” T said. She exchanged a smile with S as the team all sat around the table and ate their first meal together.

~

Maion walked into a dark lab, looking hurried. She was greeted by a being with eyes on antennae and yellow skin in a lab coat.

“Doctor? He’s back?” she asked him. 

The doctor nodded and gestured for her to follow him, “This way.” In a corner of the room, a ghostly white being restrained to a metal table was struggling to get loose.

Maion walked around the table so that she could face Stock Rebin and when he saw her his breath caught before he hissed, “You liar! You lied to them! I got out and you-”

Maion interrupted his accusation and snapped, “Did you tell Prism anything?” Her black eyes stared at him with such intense anger that he felt as though they alone could hurt him. Stock huffed and shook his head, looking like he might cry through his anger.

“Prism? That was Prism? I tried! They wouldn’t listen to me! I would have! I couldn’t- I didn’t realize- They would have helped me! They said I stole from you. That’s what you told them? I’m not research! I’m my own being and you can’t do this!” He raised off the table toward Maion as much as he far as the straps across his chest would let him and snarled, “Just wait, those women are going to start noticing something’s wrong if you keep using them as your own personal kidnappers. They aren’t stupid!” Maion grabbed his shoulder and slammed him back onto the table. She dug her webbed hands into his shoulders, holding him down.

“Of course they didn’t listen, you look sick. You sound insane; and you won’t get another chance to try.” She nodded to the doctor, who stuck Rebin with a syringe containing a green substance and depressed the plunger. Stock Rebin’s face fell as he dropped into unconsciousness. Maion stood and straightened the jacket of the pant suit she was wearing and turned to the doctor.

“Send him to the outer facility. I won’t have him escaping again.”

“Yes m’am,” the doctor nodded while showing her his holo-screen, “Early results aren’t good though. He may not be what we need. Running more tests could be a waste of time.” 

“Will it another test kill him?” she asked.

“Not quite yet, but like the others he may not be able to handle it and we won’t know until it’s too late.” Maion stared at the results for a long moment before waving her hand through the screen.

“Do it anyway. Get whatever results you can, if he… isn’t right for this, then we’ll have to keep looking, won’t we?” The doctor nodded in agreement and her expression steeled.

“In fact, move everything to the outer facility. I heard the Authority and Prism reported Rebin’s strange behavior, they wanted to make sure he would be okay. He is right. Prism isn’t stupid. I don’t need them trying to stop something they don’t understand.”

“Yes m’am.

“Good, get started.”


	2. Prism Part 2- Strange Familiars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2: Strange Familiars
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

T poked her head into Art’s common area & looked around, feeling out the vibe of the room. She found C, S, and M all engrossed in their own activities on their holo-screens.

“Heeey,” she asked, elongating the word trying to sound cheery, “So do we have job, like, right now?” S looked up from her screen where she was reading a scientific journal.

“Why?” She raised her eyebrows suspiciously as T sidled in the room looking nervous, but trying to hide it.

“I just have this old friend, got robbed; needs some help catching the guy, figured we could help them out.” C lowered her arm and the holo-watch it, a half finished game could be seen on the screen.

“Help ‘em out so like for free?, ” she asked.

“Pretty much,” T shrugged. S seemed to stare into T’s soul.

“I don’t mind doing that,” C sat up a little straighter and looked to S who was still staring at T.

“Who. Is. The friend?” S asked very slowly. T anxiously looked from S, to C, and even glanced over at M before staring at the floor.

“Nat,” T muttered. S and C immediately sat straight up.

“What?!” They both snapped. M, who had been studying Art’s schematics finally joined in the discussion.

“Who’s Nat?” she asked. S’s state of shock quickly morphed to anger. 

“Are you kidding me?!” she asked T. 

“After last time?” C backed S up. T put up her hands in a defensive gesture.

“Okay, okay. Come on, she got robbed. She’s like legit now, she has her own business, a bar. We just need to bring the guy and the money back.”

“Are we sure it’s her money?” C rolled her eyes.

“Who’s Nat?” M asked again, but everyone was too caught up in objections to answer. 

“She shorted us on payment last time and now you want to do a job for her for free,” S accused.

“She didn’t short us, I said she could get a discount,” T reminded her.

“She should have paid full price after she stabbed me!” S threw back.

“She stabbed you?!” M blurted out.

“Imagine what she’ll do when she doesn’t have to pay,” C joked darkly. T tried to calm everyone down.

“She only stabbed you so the other guy wouldn’t shoot you! It was a smart tactic!” At that, S and C dissolved into annoyed silence. M saw her opportunity to again.

“So who’s Nat?”

“T’s criminal ex-girlfriend,” C muttered.

“She’s not a criminal,” T, once again, defended, “Anymore.”

“Really, because last time we ended up arresting her,” S told M.

“Oh no,” M groaned realizing what she was walking into.

“That’s not going to happen again. The stabbing or the arresting” T argued, “Like I said, she’s settled down. She just needs help catching the guy who stole her money.”

“So you have a criminal ex-girlfriend who owns a bar and stabs beings?” M asked with a sarcastic undertone.

“Ya know, we don’t know each other super well yet, so don’t dive too deep into the judgemental pool,” T snapped. C replied instead.

“Yes, she has a criminal ex-girlfriend who owns a bar and stabs beings.” The room fell quiet again as T deflated.

“Please, it will just take a day or two, you don’t even need to come down to the planet,” T calmly appealed to her friends. S and C exchanged looks.

“We don’t have anything scheduled for the next three days,” S said through gritted teeth.

“Yes! Thank you!” T looked relieved. She quickly turned to M with a sweet smile on her face, “Actually that was a bit of a lie, could you please fly me down to the planet?”

“Oh, you can’t fly?” M’s words dripped mock and sarcasm, “See I wouldn’t know that cause we don’t know each other super well yet.” T face froze in a shocked expression that broke into laughter.

“That was an amazing comeback,” T managed to sputter.

“Thank you,” M smiled mockingly.

“So will you fly?” T asked again as she regained her composure.

“I don’t know…” M responded apprehensively.

“Oh come on, please? I’m sorry, okay? For being rude… again.”

“Fine, yeah, I’ll fly,” M gave her a cheeky smile, “I kinda want to meet this ex anyway.”

“Yes! Thank you!” T grinned.

“Stay away from sharp objects,” S intoned, turning back to her holo-screen.

“Or a stove,” C added.

“What?” The apprehension in M’s eyes grew strong, but T waved C off.

“Don’t worry about it. Art, can you head to Baumar please?” T directed her request to the ceiling. S’s head snapped up again.

“She’s on Baumar?!” S exclaimed. Under S’s words they could hear Art ping and say “On route.”

“That is not shocking,” C muttered as she laid back down on the couch.

“That place is basically lawless!” All cheekiness was gone from M’s expression. It now read her clear understanding that this mess was more ‘planet-sized’ and she’d just agreed to fly down to it. T tried to soothe her fellow team members making slow wide sweeping gestures with her arms.

“Just don’t worry about it; I got this. I’m gonna go tell her we’re coming,” T reassured and ran out of the room before anyone could say anything more.

~

When they reach Baumar, M & T headed down in Art Two. The planet was small, barely big enough to be called a planet, and mostly rocky & sandy. It wasn’t hot enough to be a desert, but also not enough of anything else to be of interest to most beings. It attracted those trying to escape from another part of their life, whether that be the law, their family, or their own minds. As they flew down M glanced over to T. 

“S immediately knew that something was up when you walked into the room. How often do you do something like this?” M asked. T smiled for half a second as she stared out the front window.  
“We have been working together for a long time & know each other really well. I don’t do this often, but I just feel like helping beings out sometimes.”

“Oh, that’s really... nice,” M did not expect this from this team member, who up to a few days again, didn’t even want her there because she couldn’t shoot a gun. “So, mind if i ask you a somewhat personal question?” T raised her eyebrows at the pilot, suspicious, but curious.

“Sure?”

“Is this one of those times or do you just want to see your ex?” M asked bluntly. T hesitated for a moment before answering.

“That’s complicated,” T said, but didn’t offer any other explanation so the two lapsed into silence. When they broke the atmosphere they were flying above a small city. One or two story brick and wood buildings were all crowded together with no clear semblance of order. M tapped buttons on the ship's computer. 

“Does this place even have a port?” M asked.

“Uh no, but it’s ok, you can just land behind the bar,” T pointed to a building in the distance that was slightly separated from the rest with a crowd of ships from all over the galaxy landed around it. A large, brightly lit red sign sat on the roof that read, Setmarku.

“Setmarku? What does that mean?” M asked.

“Who knows?” T sighed, “Nat probably promised some girl that she would name the bar after her, but that made her actual girlfriend mad and they both dumped her.”

“She seems fun.” M landed behind the large metal building. The two women could see a small door in the back with empty crates stacked on either side as they walked around to the large wooden front doors. Just before they entered T grabbed M’s arm to stop her.

“What?” M asked. T took a deep breath and hesitated before responding.

“Uh, can you pretend to be my girlfriend?”

“Excuse me?” M pulled her arm out of T’s grip and turned around to face her.

“I just- I mean she’s probably going to flirt with me and if I had a girlfriend with me then she would think twice about it,” T said, “I mean she still might, but she’s think about not.  
“Are you scared of her?” M raised her eyebrows.

“No,” T scoffed, “I just think if I had my girlfriend with me then it would annoy her into not flirting.”

“We’ve barely been working together a week, and most of that time you haven’t even wanted to work with me, and now you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”

“No? That’s a- no, ok nevermind,” T took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, “Let’s go.” She pushed the heavy door open, leading the way into the dark bar. It was surprisingly quiet despite the large number of ships surrounding it. All the beings were tucked away in high-backed booths or on stools, molded over the edge of the bar. There were tall tables positioned in the middle of the room, but no one sat at any of them. M strongly suspected they were there less for actual seating and more so that it was harder to spy on someone across the room. T marched up to a tall, bulky being completely covered in brown fur standing behind the bar.

“Hello, we’re looking for Nat?” T told them. The bartender turned and grunted through a window in the wall. A blonde head popped up and broke into a grin when she saw T, who immediately grinned back. The head disappeared from the window and emerged from a door in the same wall.

“I thought your friends wouldn’t let you come after last time,” she tried to hug T, she leaned out of her reach.

“Aw,” Nat pouted a little, “you aren’t excited to see me?” T gave a strained laugh and shook her head.

“Uh, no, it’s not that I’m not happy to see you Nat, but uh,” T became flustered under the heavy lidded gaze of the girl before her, “I mean, it’s a job you know- I mean I know it’s a favor, but- uh and with S and C being uh-.” M recognized all the signs of a ship about to go down and with a sigh reached out and grabbed T’s hand.

“She just knows a hug would make me a little uncomfortable,” M pulled herself towards T so she was practically pressing into her side. T, a little taken aback at this quick change of mind, recovered quickly.

“Yeah, uh Nat, this is my girlfriend, M,” T said. Nat raised her eyebrows and the smile on her face froze.

“New one?” she asked raising her eyebrows.

“Uh, we’ve been dating for a little while now-” T squeezed M’s hand as a signal for her help in inventing their fake relationship story.

“I mean, new M,” Nat corrected her, the smile sliding off her face.

“Oh, yeah, at least since last time...” T trailed off. They all fell into an awkward silence as Nat looked M up and down & turned back to T. The smile had returned, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“I have to finish something up in back. You can grab a seat over there and I'll be a minute,” Nat pointed to a booth in a back corner that didn’t have too many beings around. With a snappy turn of her heel, she stamped back through the door behind the bar. M quickly let go of T’s hand along with her amorous demeanor and turned for the booth.

“Thank you so much,” T whispered as she followed behind her.

“You have no self control, do you?” M hissed back.

“I can punch beings really well, but flirting with my ex isn’t my strong suit.”

“Maybe helping her was a bad idea,” M slid into the booth and folded her hands together.

“I’ll handle it,” T sighed and settled across the table.

“She didn’t look too happy that you have a girlfriend. Is she gonna stab me too?” M joked darkly.

“Nooo,” T elongated the word and then paused and she tapped the table with her finger absentmindedly, “Probably not, don’t worry about it.” M looked back to the bar to make sure Nat wasn’t coming yet before admitting.

“She is pretty though. I’d date her,” M smiled, “I mean, if I didn’t know all that really terrible stuff.” T smiled slowly.

“Yeah? Well I’ve had girlfriends, boyfriends, and relationships who don’t fall into either of those categories, but Nat is definitely the, uh… well let’s say, most eccentric.”

“Really?” M relaxed a little. She unfolded her hands and leaned back in her seat, “It’s mainly just boyfriends and girlfriends for me.”

“Any of ‘em ‘eccentric’?” T prompted jokingly, raising her eyebrows and grinning. M gave a dry laugh, but didn’t answer the question.

“So is it a requirement to join the team that you have to be attracted to more than one type of being?” she asked instead. T gave a real laugh.

“Tell that to C who’s not attracted to anybody.”

“Oh really?”

“Yup, she likes guys, and guy-type beings, but just for hugs and snuggles.” T leaned into the table and smiled obviously thinking her description was very amusing. M leaned in too. 

“And S?”

“Oh she loves men. The hand holding and the sexy parts. We like to joke that S stands for straight instead of sciences, lovingly joke, of course.” M threw her head back laughing and T grinned again before they noticed Nat walking up. She again smiled at T and gestured to her to scoot in on the booth seat. T hesitated, glancing at M, but scooted further into the booth. 

“So you got robbed,” M jumped right in, not wanting to give the blonde a chance to use the seat as an advantage on T.

“Yes,” Nat directed her answer to T, “I can’t believe it. Not just because this kid seemed really nice, but also I have a reputation. He knew what would happen if anyone robbed from me.”

“And what is that?” M leaned over a little to try and look Nat in the face. Nat gave M a mocking look and smiled without answering her question before turning back to T.

“Anyway, his name is Derg, little human thing. Made off with about 15,000 dal.” T’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Wow, how are you still open?” 

Nat waved her hand, “Don’t worry about it.” 

“W-well,” T paused glancing at M, “now I’m kinda worried about it.” They all fell silent and Nat continued to evade the question. M broke the silence first.

“So this guy, Derg-”

“Great name, by the way,” T interrupted and M ignored her.

“Do you know where we could find him?” Nat shrugged.

“He’s going to have a rough time getting out of this system. He may have taken a lot of money, so he could hire a ride but, as you know, the border ships don’t really like the folks from Baumar.”

“Baumarans do tend to go and, kind of, steal things,” T goaded.

“Not all of us,” N replied in slightly offended tone, but giving T a teasing look. 

“Says the being who was just robbed,” T quipped, but returned Nat’s look with a grin.

M tried to push the conversation back on track, “So, he would be where in the system?”

“I don’t know,” Nat sighed. The women around her groaned and she cut them off, “But... he does have a tracker.”

“A tracker?” M asked. Nat finally looked at her with an expression showing she plainly thought this information should be obvious.

“Baumarans may be fine with everyone going to steal from other planets, but if you steal from beings here they get cranky and implant a tracker in your arm.”

“Then why haven’t you found him already?” T asked.

“He found a way to ping it off different planets. I need a hacker,” Nat pulled a tiny disk not much larger than an eye out of a pocket and pushed it on the table toward T.

“Oh C is not going to help you,” T pushed it back. Nat looked confused.

“I thought I was getting the whole team.”

“Oh no, I’m just here cause I know how to fly,” M grinned sweetly, with only a hint of mocking.

“And we’re dating,” T emphasised the last word to remind her.

“Right!” M pointed at T.

“That’s why she came with me,” T tried to cover this slip awkwardly.

“Of course,” M nodded, but didn’t look at Nat in case her face gave anything of their lie away. Nat ignored them and pleaded.

“T, please, all I need C to do is find a location. She can do that from the ship. Then you just go there, bring him back, and I can get my money back. They don’t even have to talk to me, let alone see me.” 

T sighed and rolled her eyes, “I’ll ask.” She grabbed the disk and stuck it in her pocket.

“Oh I knew it! Thank you!” Nat threw her arms around T who stiffened.

“Uh, Nat,” T glanced over to M for help, who shrugged.

“Right, girlfriend, sorry,” Nat let go, but didn’t sound remotely sorry.

~

When M and T arrived back at Art Two, they settled in the seats and open the video comm back to the ship.

“What are you gonna say to them?” M asked while flipping switches on the dash. T didn’t answer. She pulled the disk out of her pocket and played with it while she thought. 

“I have no idea, and if that doesn’t work I’m going to beg and plead,” she joked.

“Why do you care so much about this?” M asked, “You don’t even seem to like her that much.” T kept staring at the disk and very purposely didn’t look as M.

“I don’t like her. Mostly, I mean-” T sighed, “Okay, don’t say anything cause not even S and C know this, but... Nat dumped me right before I left to work for Prism, like 20 minutes before.”

“Wow,” M’s jaw dropped.

“Yeah, that’s why I asked you to act like my girlfriend and why I keep helping her because at some point I’ll get a chance to show her up and make her look like an idiot. Haven’t gotten that chance yet, but it’s coming. I feel it.” M turned her entire body in her seat so she was facing T.

“That’s why when I asked if you wanted to see her you said it’s complicated.”

“Yup,” T nodded.

“So you’re going to ask your team to do something they don’t want to do, because you want to win in a break up?”

“Well, when you put it like that,” T paused chuckling, “Yes, yes, I do.”

“What makes you think this won’t backfire on you?” M challenged, but T just waved her hand.

“C will do it. She always wants to help. The hard part will be convincing S.” M shook her head and scoffed.

“You know, you haven’t asked me if I’ll help, not really,” she pointed out and T smirked.

“You’re right. I’m sorry; I keep having to say that to you. Will you help me stick it to my ex-girlfriend?”

“By helping her?”

“By helping her.”

“S said you arrested her last time, that wasn’t enough?”

“She didn’t really seem to care, so no.” M couldn’t help letting out a snort of laughter, but then stayed quiet for a minute studying her new team member. Finally, she shook her head again, turning back to the dash.

“Fine, I’ll help. Mainly because I need more experience on jobs. Also because I kind of want to see this blow up in your face.”

“I am okay with that,” T replied.

~

“No,” S’s annoyance could practically be felt though the video screen.

“I don’t have to leave the ship?” C asked.

“No,” S repeated more insistantly.

“You don’t have to leave the ship,” T said. When she explained the predicament they were in and the two other team members had very different reactions. 

S turned to C, “Please no.”

“I don’t have to talk to Nat?” C asked, with an edge of warning in her voice, ignoring S.

“Nope,” T shook her head.

“This isn’t happening,” S rolled her eyes. 

C nodded, “Yeah send me the data, I’ll dig through the signal, see where I can find him. Probably shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. These things aren’t complex trackers.”

“Complex enough it seems,” M pointed out.

“They don’t have my materials,” C grinned mischievously through the screen. T put the disk into a slot in the ship and a little green light lit up.

“Got it,” C said and walked out of frame activating her holo-screen watch.

“T you said we wouldn’t have to do anything,” S said, obviously annoyed.

“And you don’t, C is doing the hacking,” T explained trying to sound as comforting as possible.

“Semantics and you know it,” S shot back.

“I’m sorry. I thought Nat had a better idea of where he was, and preferably on world. That’s my fault, I’m sorry,” T gave S a pleading look. The look of frustration melted off of S’s face.

“I can almost guarantee that it’s mostly her fault, but thank you,” she said.

“Oh he’s definitely off Baumar,” C’s head poked back into view and just as quickly popped back out.

“Shit,” T spat and pounded her fist on the dash and pressed the heel of her hand on her forehead. M started up Art Two.

“Are you coming back here then?” S asked.

“Yeah,” M pulled her seat restraints over her head, “If we’ve got to go some place else then we might as well.” C popped her head back into frame again.

“I’ll probably have his location by the time you get back.”

“Sounds good, see you soon,” T said.

“Can’t wait to hear about who Nat has stabbed lately,” S muttered as T leaned forward to switch off the video chat. T hit the button a little harder than was needed.

“Strap in please,” M instructed and T complied. “You going to tell them about our new found relationship?” M joked as she lifted the shuttle off the ground. 

T raised her eyebrows, “Well I need something to brighten their moods.”

~

“Found him,” C chimed. M and T had landed in Art’s hanger, and found C waiting in the lift. She held up her holo-screen where in one corner a disheveled sad face with dark blond hair looked out at them; in the other was grid and a little red dot.

“That was fast,” M sounded impressed.

“Thank you,” C said in a singsong voice, “Seems like a happy guy, huh?”

“Where is he?” T asked leaning against C’s arm to see the screen better.

“Well he’s smart and he was able to get someone to mess with his tracker so it bounced from Baumar to two other planets in the system every 5 minutes. He’s actually not on any of them, but instead he’s on a ship right in between all of them,” C hit the map and it filled the holo-screen to show more of the planet system.

“Wow that’s kind of impressive for a bartender,” T remarked.

“Obviously he had help from somebody,” C pointed out.

“Friendly ship?” M asked. C shrugged.

“Can’t tell from this far out, but the guy stole money so probably not.”

“Great, so we’ll have to go through some beings to get to him,” T groaned.

“Well, at least we’ll have to go through the ship’s wall,” C clarified.

“I can probably do that,” M activated her own holo-watch and tapped the screen. They reached the common area and walked in to to find S examining a map of a planetary system  
“Welcome back,” S said to them then looked at the ceiling, “Art, please take us into the Bactar system, section 2.533.” A ping sounded above their heads.

“On route.” On the map, a little blue dot began moving toward a little red one as T walked over to the table.

“Art, could I get some water please?” A filled bottle rose up from the center of table, T grabbed it and sank onto one of the couches.

“We have about half an hour until we are in range to communicate,” S told them.

“Don’t get too close. If the ship isn’t friendly then I have an idea, but they can’t see us first,” M had continued to tap on her screen as she sat on the other couch across from T. 

“What is it?” S asked.

“I’ll explain more when we get a little closer. Need to work out some details,” M waved her hand, and then her face split into a wicked grin, “So T and I are dating now.” T spit out the gulp of water she was about to swallow.

“What?!” S looked shocked.

“I knew it!” C exclaimed and bounced onto the couch next to T. All the surprised expressions were redirected to C.

“No!” T proclaimed, her throat still tight from almost choking on her water, “No, it was easier to keep Nat from flirting with me if I had my “girlfriend” with me.” T used her finger to create air quotes around the phrase ‘my girlfriend’ before gesturing to M.

“Oh,” C fell back on the couch looking disappointed at the clarification. M gave her a confused look before turning her face back to her holo-screen. S, realizing it wasn’t real, finally laughed. 

“Oh I bet Nat loved that.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t like me much,” M grinned despite herself, but T rolled her eyes.

“Well yeah, I’m sure in this fake relationship your exes wouldn’t like me either. Oh! You never answered that earlier by the way, do you have some crazy exes hiding in a closet?” M held up a finger.

“Hold on, trying to work out this plan.” C, though, sat up, looking excited.

“I once had a guy convinced I would ‘just like having sex if I tried it.’ He was out the door real fast, but not before he brought over some… well… videos to test out.”

“Oh, how sweet of him,” T said sarcastically.

“I know, right?” C shot back, just as sarcastic, “S, what’s your wild dating story for us.” S cheeks flushed.

“Well I got married once.” All the other women looked up at her, mouths agape.

“What?!” T spat and grinned, “You’ve never told us this!”

“Me either!” C chimed. S’s face grew redder.

“Well I don’t talk about it normally, but your ex is worse, so I don’t feel so bad.” She nodded to T, who nodded in agreement. “We just got ahead of ourselves. We’re still friendly.”

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry,” C got up and hugged her friend around the shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it,” S smiled as T jumped into the storytelling.

“I had a guy who when I told him I liked multiple being types he got really excited and wanted to have a threesome almost immediately.”

“Yes,” M pointed at T while her eyes were still focused on her screen, “I’ve had that.”

“Super fun!” T’s voice slipped into sarcasm again before switching back to normal, “I had a being from Rengeno get jealous of my friends thinking I wanted to sleep with all of them. I like only having one partner and they knew that, but they still thought I had the hots for everyone.”

“That’s why I like being up here with you all sometimes,” C sighed, “We can get away from all that drama.”

“And risk our lives,” S pointed out. T laughed.

“Exactly, it’s so much better!” she quipped.

“Ok, I think I’m ready,” M interjected. The women turned their attention to her. “So I’ll start by saying if the vessel seems to be friendly right off the bat, we’ll of course try and communicate and let them know what’s going on. Though since I have a feeling it’s not, here’s my plan. We need to stop just out of range of detection so they don’t think we’re anyone to bother with. We can take The Tube the rest of the way. It has detection cloaking right?” S nodded, “Then when I get close enough I can get into a selperm and make my way over to the ship. C, I’ll need some hacking from you here to open their airlocks so I can get inside and grab this kid. We’ll leave and head back to the The Tube where the selperm can reconnect and we can head back here.”

“I might have to be with you in the selperm to hack those doors open. If they don’t have an open system, I’ll need to manually plug into the ship,” C pointed out. 

T half raised her hand in a mock of asking a question in class, “And what about the potential beings ON the ship. Who are potentially helping him? You are still not exactly gun trained, M.”

“Well if C needs to come she can help with that right?” M gestured to C.

“Happy to!” C said brightly. S shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“There are a lot of unknown variables in this plan.”

“But it’s the best we’ve got right now, so I’m in. I’ll go with you two to open the trapdoor on The Tube,” T offered.

“Aw, you don’t want to come in the selperm with us?” C teased.

“You mean the blue space bubble of death? No, thank you,” T bantered.

“You don’t like selperms?” M asked looking baffled. 

S smiled mischievously, “She’s convinced one will pop and she’ll die out in space.” M’s confusion deepened. 

“That is literally impossible,” she told T, who sighed and stood up looking to the screen as they drew closer to the mystery ship. 

“Irrational fear is irrational,” she said and dropped the topic.

“Uh… we’re close enough to the ship for comms, but they have no available identification,” C hit buttons on her holo-screen and gazing nervously at the screen.

“All ships are required to broadcast their ident,” M stared at the screen as well.

“This one isn’t,” C confirmed.

“Well that’s never good. Can you hack them, C?” S asked.

“Art, are you able to bring an image up of the ship,” T asked. A ping sounded above.

“Visual processing,” Art’s voice said. A moment later an image of an old run down ship with no markings popped up on the screen. T launched into a tirade of sarcasm.

“Oh yeah! That looks like a great ship. Classiest ship in the galaxy; everyone wants to hang out there!”

“Yeah definitely don’t comm that ship,” C lowered her arm and stared fixedly at the screen, “It’s a slaver.”

“Are you serious?” M’s eyes grew wide. She walked up to the screen as though “Slaver” was plastered across the outside of the ship and she just missed it the first time. T placed her hands on the back of S’s chair and leaned into it with a heavy sigh.

“We’ve dealt with slavers before. It’s never fun.”

“So we’re going with M’s plan. Let’s go suit up,” S stood up from her chair much to the surprise of her teammates.

“Wait, now you’re coming?” T asked. S gestured to the screen.

“This is more than picking up a thief now. We’ve got to take care of that ship and I’m not letting you guys do that by yourselves.”

“C, were you able to access their system remotely?” M asked.

“Nope, I was only able to detect their system, but definitely not enough to open the doors. It’s pretty heavily fortified for a slaver ship, so you’ve got a selperm buddy,” C held up her hand to M who slightly reluctantly high-fived it. T pulled her blue hair up into a ponytail.

“I’m still not getting in one of those unless I have to.” 

C rolled her eyes, “Once I get the airlock open and we make sure the coast is clear, S can dock Art Two. Like most slavers this thing only has a window in the front for navigation, but no other windows for nefarious reasons which as always works in our advantage-”

“I know how slavers work,” T muttered under her breath.

“I’m telling M,” C continued, “Once we’re inside, we can do our normal slaver plan.” Everyone and they nodded.

“And that would be?” M asked.

“You and I will head to the engine room to disable the ship-” C explained before T interrupted.

“While I hit beings real hard and tie them up,” she grinned at M.

“Right, then we call the Authority and leave them to be picked up,” C finished.

“All right let’s go,” S beckoned and they all left for their quarters to change into different clothes.

~

10 minutes later they had geared up and boarded The Tube. Each took the same seats as the trip down to Travia. M closed The Tube’s door and turned to C, who was tapping rapidly on her holo-screen.

“Aaaaaand done,” C said, “We’ve got a dead zone around us, we should just look like empty space on their tracking system.”

“It is truly amazing what you can do with computer systems,” M said half joking and half in awe and C grinned appreciatively.

She guided the craft out of Art’s open hangar door and rocketed off towards the slaver ship. After 5 minutes, they were close enough to see it. Though the old ship only had a front window, M had purposely maneuvered The Tube so they approached from below, pulling them close enough to almost touched the bottom.. C and T unstrapped and prepped plasma guns.

“Ok, selperm up?” M asked.

“Almost,” S pressed a few buttons on the dash, “All right you’re good. As soon as you are out there I will transfer control over to the belt.” M unstrapped and walked back to the trapdoor. C pulled a metal belt with what looked like an oversized buckle off the wall and handed it to her while S took over the pilot’s seat. M strapped it around her waist and turned to the others.

“Ready?” The women nodded and T lifted the trapdoor. C and M jumped down one after the other. The absence of gravity in the selperm caught them and they floated inside the blue bubble that encapsulated the bottom of The Tube. T shut the trapdoor and sat next to S in the front passenger seat. S hit a few more buttons on the dash and then pressed her ear comm.

“Selperm control has been transferred to the belt, you are good to go,” she told M.

“Copy,” M’s said. She pressed a button on the belt and the top edges of the selperm moved along the bottom of the craft toward the middle. When all the edges joined the selperm detached from The Tube so that M and C floated in a large bubble in the middle of space. M pressed another button on the belt and the selperm began moving, carrying M and C to the back end of the slaver ship. When it had rounded up the side, M pressed another button on the belt and it stopped in front of a docking station.

“I need in that panel,” C pointed to a metal covered square shaped panel, the size of her hand, to the right of the hatch. M nodded and pressed the belt again. The selperm pressed against the side of the ship and where the metal met the bubble the selperm separated and molded around the ship so they could access it. M pulled a small device from her pocket and pressed a button. A little laser shot out the end and she cut a out the metal covering the panel. 

C took a small drive from her utility belt, much like the one she used to get into Stock Rebin’s apartment on Travia and once again, plugged it into a socket behind the panel. Her holo-screen activated and a slew of data scrolled across it as she tapped in seemingly random spots. The dock door slid open to reveal a small airlock compartment with another door leading into the ship. There was a small circular window set in the inner door, but they couldn’t see anyone or anything through it. 

C grabbed the drive as M pressed a button on the belt to maneuver the selperm inside. C poked her screen hurriedly and the outer door closed. Immediately M hit a button on her belt and the selperm disappeared. They ducked under the window and out of anyone’s sight of any beings who could potentially pass by. C pulled a tiny metal cylinder out of her utility belt, its width only the size of a pinky nail. She pressed a button on the back and placed it onto the frame of the window.

“My watch dog,” she grinned at M. On her holo-screen, an image of the room beyond appeared and M peered over her shoulder.

“Doesn’t look there’s anyone out there. Do you have control of their system yet?” M asked.

“Yes. One second. I have to hack the docking door to not send an alert when T and S dock. Keep watch,” C told her.

C pushed the middle of the watch dog’s footage on her screen and swiped left toward M. M’s holo-watch screen activated automatically and now she had the footage from the watch dog on her screen. C rapidly hit spots on her screen again. 

“Okay, S, come on in,” C said, hitting her comm and a few moments later, The Tube gently attached to the ship. The outer door opened, relieving T and S as they joined the others inside the slaver ship. T already had her gun out and pointing it at the ground. S hit a button to the left of the door and it closed. They all bent down low in the cramped airlock to keep out of sight through the little window.

C grabbed the little watch dog and hit a button to right on the wall to her right. The inner airlock door lifted up an inch before she quickly hit the button again and it stopped. Bending down to the opening, she pressed the button on the back again and let go of the device. They all watched as the little camera began hovering in mid air. She reached over to M’s holoscreen and transferred the footage back to her own holo-screen. M had never seen anything like this before and it was mesmerizing.

Cpressed a finger to her holo-screen and slid it forward. The watch dog copied her movement and went floated under the door and into the hallway beyond. Guiding it on her screen, C turned it left and then right and deemed the hallway clear. She pressed the button on the wall again and the door opened the rest of the way.

“You’re going to have to guide the watch dog now, S,” C said as she once again swiped to transfer the footage to S’s holo-screen. S studied her screen as the footage appeared before her. C deactivated her screen and pulled out her plasma gun while M let T slide ahead of her. Once in position, with C and T leading, guns at the ready, they moved into the hallway.

“C, they don’t have surveillance cameras on this ship right?” T whispered.

“Nope, we’re clear,” C hissed back.

“Excellent, which way to the holding cell?” T glanced around as though she’d see a sign. C nodded down the hallway to their right.

“You’ll take a right up that way and then go straight.” She looked around puzzled, “You know, this ship looks run down from the outside, but it’s pretty fancy in here. Plus when I was hacking them, I noticed their operating system is pretty high tech.”

“Well they’re probably really good slavers,” T shrugged. The team all gave her odd looks and T to realized what she said. “Which is really bad, of course.” S rolled her eyes.

“Okay, so T and I will head to the holding cell, which way do you two need to go?”

C motioned everyone back from the center of the hallway and the three other women took a few steps back. C lifted up a floor plate with a handle they hadn’t noticed before. Looking down into it, they saw a long shaft with a ladder that led down into the ship.

“Convenient,” T nodded and grinned.

“When you’ve disabled the ship let us know,” S told C.

“Will do,” C agreed, “Tap your ear comm twice when you get to the holding cell. I’ll open the door for you.” She climbed down into the trapdoor and M followed. S quietly shut the floor plate back down and then guided the watch dog ahead of her and to the right.

“Nobody there,” she said. They moved forward quietly and turned the corner headed for the holding cell.

~

As C and M slowly made their way down the ladder all they could hear were their own footsteps on the metal rungs and the hum of the ship around them. After a minute, C looked up at M.

“Well this is fun. We get to work together this time,” C said. M gave a soft laugh.

“How can you be so cheerful at a time like this?” M glanced down at C as she took another careful step down.

“Well if you hadn’t noticed our job is kind of hectic, which can be really stressful. I don’t want to feel like that all the time so I like to lighten the mood a bit!” C shrugged.

“I suppose that’s a good quality to have,” M responded absentmindedly.

“Hold up,” C told her, “We’re almost to the bottom.” They stopped 4 rungs from another metal floor plate and C pulled her gun out, “All right, this is going to be the engine room. When I say, jump down after me.”

“Sounds good” M asked. C pushed off from the ladder & landed on the floor plate. It crashed open & fell to the floor 10 feet below with C riding it down. As soon as she landed, she whipped her head around & saw a being with tentacles where a face would be on other beings at a control panel. They had turned toward the crash and were now rushing towards her. C quickly shot her gun and they dropped. She saw another running for a door across the room. She aimed and waited until they stopped moving to enter a code at the door to take her shot. They dropped to the floor just as the other had. C took one more look around and when she couldn’t see anyone else she called for M to come down. A moment later M landed in the engine room and looked around at the fallen beings.

“Here, take this this,” C pulled from her pocket what looked like rubber bracelets and threw one to M, who caught it.. She pulled the hands of one of the tentacle beings behind their back and put the bracelet around their wrists, binding them together. As soon as she snapped it electricity crackled to life around it.

“You get the one by the door,” C instructed, “Then work on disabling their engine. I’ll reroute the controls. There shouldn't be anymore beings down here. There usually aren’t on these ships.”

“How many slaver ships have you all taken down?” she asked, walking over to the second fallen being. C began working on the control panel before answering. 

“Five.” M wrapped the bracelets around the beings wrists like C had done.

“And that’s enough for you guys to assume a pattern?”

“Yeah, it’s been pretty much the same all the ships so it’s been a safe bet, at least for the last two. Once we got the pattern, T stepped in and created the best plan to take them down. She likes to say tactical work is nothing but knowing patterns and how to dismantle them. She tends to think everyone has a pattern that she can figure out. I, for one, can appreciate a surprise. What do you think?” C giggled. M jumped the short length down into the pit that held the engine and began looking for a way to disable it.

“About what?,” M asked.

“Do you like patterns or surprises?”

“I’m into mechanics, everything is supposed to work the same way every time. Surprises in that line of work usually means something went wrong,” M responded.

“Fair point,” C laughed.

“It depends though, with beings,” M shrugged, but didn’t elaborate and C smiled down to her as they continued working on the ship.

~

After a few minutes of following the watch dog down the corridor, S and T saw a door labelled “Brig” on the video feed. Quickly and silently, they hurried forward. S deactivated her holo-screen & grabbed the watch dog out of mid air, turning it off as she tucked it in her own belt. They pressed their backs to the wall on either side of the door. S pulled out her own plasma gun and clicked off the safety. T nodded to silently asking if she was ready, and S nodded back. T tapped her ear piece twice. A few seconds later, the door opened, but they didn’t move.  
A very large being with tentacles covering their face poked their head out of the door and turning to find the cause of the open door. S shot and the being fell to the floor without knowing what even happened. A high voice inside the room screamed. T glanced around the corner and saw another tentacled being barrelling toward the door. She shot and they fell. A large tentacle lashed around the corner toward her head and she ducked. S shot at the tentacle and it whipped back inside. Nothing happened for a moment so both women both peered around the corner into the room. They saw another tenticled being scramble to the other side of the room, and pull on a ceiling plate so a ladder slid down into the room. T shot, but it ducked then climbed onto the ladder. She holstered her gun as she ran into the room grabbed its foot before it disappeared. She yanked it back down into the room and it crashed on top of her. They both hurriedly untangled themselves and when T’s arm was free, she punched it in the, well, what she called its face. They fell to the floor out cold.  
T didn’t take time to rest and called to S, “Where’s the camera?!” S looked around the room and saw it in a corner to her right. She pulled the trigger on her gun and second later all T could see was a smouldering piece of metal.

“Well since you barreled in here before we could disable that-” S began.

“They would have gotten away!” T defended.

“We won’t have a lot of time, come on,” S finished as she slipped the small rubbery restraining bracelets around the hands of each of the unconscious beings. T did the same with the one she hit then looked through the bars that crossed the middle of the room. Two figures were cowering inside. The bigger one with dirty messy dark blonde hair, who T recognized as Derg, had his arms wrapped around a girl who looked just a few years younger than him. She was hiding her face and crying.

“Derg?” T confirmed, stepping closer to the bars. Derby snapped his head up to look at her. A moment ago his eyes had been wide with fear as he watched the fight, now narrowed in confusing.

“Yeah...?” he asked apprehensively. T shot the lock on the cell and opened the door for him.

“Come on. We’re getting you out of here.” Derg clenched tighter to the still sobbing figure and leaned away from them.

“Why?”

“Your boss hired me to find you,” T said, “Now, come on, let’s go!”

“Nat hired you?” his voice wavered more with each passing second.

“Yes, now come on!” T was quickly losing her patience.

“I’m so sorry,” he whimpered, “Is Nat mad? I figured she would be. I had to take that money though, I had no choice! They took my sister. I was buying her back! I had to, I had no choice. But then they just grabbed me too and we took off.

“Are you serious?” S stepped closer to the cell, looking shocked and turned to T, “No wonder his tracker was messed up. They didn't want the authorities to catch up with them and take back their extra payday.” T sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“This is a mess that we don’t have time for, so come on, both of you,” T gestured at the two beings to get up. Derg didn’t move.

“Do you want to be sold as slaves or not? We need to move!” T snapped impatiently and Derg finally stood pulling his sister up with him.

“Do you know if their holding anyone else?” T asked.

“No, just us,” Derg shook his head.”

“S can you get them back to the ship while I deal with the rest of the slavers?” T asked.

“T, that’s not the plan. We always leave the beings here to be helped by the Authority,” S said.

“We were hired to get him back, just because slavers got involved doesn’t change anything. We just take both of them and deal with it later. 

“Nat’s money will be in the hands of the Authority as soon as they get here. There’s no getting back,” S expounded, “There’s no reason for us to bring him back to her besides whatever punishment she has planned which I’m not willing to be a party to. He can stay here with his sister while we take care of the slavers and then the Authority can deal with them.”

“No! They will arrest me for stealing again,” Derg expression verged on panic. They could hear footsteps running above them. They were running out of time to negotiate.

“Listen, we can take them and drop them off somewhere where neither Nat or the Authority can get to them. It’s not like he stole it for himself. You’re right, he shouldn’t be punished,” T countered. The footsteps were now, just down the hall, on the same level. 

“Fine, we’ll talk more about this later,” S gave in and took a step toward the door when the girl screamed. One of the subdued beings had woken up and while their hands were restrained, a tentacle was wrapped around the girl’s ankle. T ran over pulling a knife out of her boot and cut the tentacle off. The being made a high pitched squealing sound and the stumped tentacle recoiled. T shot them and they fell unconscious again, but now the footsteps were too close for them to leave.

“Too late now,” T groaned. She gestured to Derg and his sister, “Get behind us.” They backed into a corner on the far side of the room where the bars met the wall and S stood in front of the two with her gun ready. T flattened her back to the wall by the door.

“Guard them in here and I’ll deal with this,” T told S as she poked her head and her gun around the door, looking in the direction she had heard the footsteps from. It was quiet and still now, but she could practically feel them sitting just around the next corner of the short hallway; just like her, waiting to move in. Finally, they burst around the corner wearing helmets with visors, body armor, and carried their own guns.

“This is not a normal slaver ship,” she called to S and began shooting, targeting anyone she could. There was a sliver of skin between the body armor and the visor and she managed to hit those spots on a few beings before she ducked back around the corner with her back to the wall.

“What are you doing?” Derg screamed through his panic.

“Be quiet,” S instructed.

T ignored them, standing deathly still, listening to the movement outside the room. She could hear the leftover beings picking their way toward them through their unconscious colleagues. She guessed five by the sound of footsteps. She looked at S and nodded. S gestured to Derg and his sister to squeeze into the corner as much as they could and to crouch down to the floor. She herself tried to remain out of sight as much as she could while still holding her gun at the ready.

The first being came around the corner gun ready and before he could see anyone, T grabbed his gun and threw it across the room where S grabbed it. Just as quickly, she threw him against the bars of the cell. S shot the second one that came through the door and when the third tried to run in after them, T grabbed their arm, tilted their gun back and used their own gun to shoot them in the chin. They dropped to the floor, dead.

“They are not aiming to stun, S!” she yelled, being to turn back to the door, but from her right a fist collided with her face. The being she had thrown against the bars was back on his feet. T ducked another fist and kicked his knee. He stumbled back a few steps and she used the time to deliver a roundhouse kick that caused him to fall to his knees. He tried to get back on his feet, but she shot him in the chest and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

With two bodies blocking the doorway, the other slavers were having trouble getting through, but were still shooting through the door. T grabbed the dead body in the doorway and used them as a shield to get out to the hallway. She shot at the two left, one shot hit and the being collapsed. 

“Last one,” she thought, but then the dead body slipped in her grip and she lost her concentration. She dropped it in time to see the last fighting slaver rush her and slam her against the wall, but before he could do anything, he suddenly fell to the floor. T looked into the brig, thinking S shot him, but she was still in the corner. Two other slavers had come down the ladder in the ceiling, but fell to the floor as S shot them. She looked in the other direction back down the hallway and saw C standing there with her gun up and M behind her.

“Thanks,” T said kicking the slavers out of her way, “Is their ship dead?”

“Good to go,” M grinned, “Well, we are, I mean, they aren’t going anywhere.”

“Weird ship though,” C mentioned as the three women put restraints on everyone still alive, “Their mechanics are way better than the other ones we have taken down.”

“You’re telling me,” T gestured to the slavers lying on the floor, “Since when do slavers wear body armor?”

“We should go now,” S appeared in the doorway with Derg and his sister in tow. They heard more sounds of running down the hallway from where the others had come.

“Why do you need this many slavers for TWO beings?” T groaned.

The six of them ran down the hallway back to The Tube. When they rounded the last corner into the hall where the ship was docked, they found a being walking toward them. This one didn’t have gear on, but instead a lab coat. They started and their mouth fell open. They turned and ran in the direction they came, but T shot them unconscious quickly. Not bothering to restrain this one, they all rushed onto The Tube. T slammed the button that closed the door. S was still helping Derg and his sister strap in when C detached them from the slaver and M rocketed away. It wasn't until they could see Art in the distance that she slowed down a little.

“We should be good,” M told them, still breathing heavy from running and adrenaline, “If they were able to fix what I did to their engine that fast then they aren’t just weird, they’re magic.” C, sitting in the front passenger seat, tapped on her holo-screen. With no seats left in The Tube, S and T had grabbed the handles on the ceiling to keep upright during their escape. Now, they peered over C’s shoulder to watch her screen.

“No one is behind us,” C assured them, “I just sent an anonymous report to the Authority about where to find the slaver.” M calmly navigated The Tube back inside Art. Once they landed and were powering down, the team looked to their new guests. The girl was still strapped in to one of the seats in the back and silent tears were streaming down her face. Derg had unstrapped his restraints and gently worked on hers. S kneeled down in front of her. 

“Hello. My name is S, what’s yours?” The girl looked to be about 15 years old and didn’t raise her head when she asked in a voice thick with tears.

“Why’s your name S?”

“It’s a code name that keeps me safe,” S smiled kept a calm voice as she responded.

“You’re Prism,” the girl said, guessing correctly, “Beings on my planet don’t like you.”

“I’m not surprised by that, but we’re not going to hurt you,” S raised her hand for the girl to take, “If you and your brother would come upstairs with me to our medical bay I can make sure that you are all right.” The girl hesitated and then took S’s hand. She still didn’t raised her head.

“I’m Shany,” she whispered. S smiled again. 

“It’s nice to meet you Shany.” S put her hand on the girl’s back and helped her stand up. Derg was on her other side and had his arm through her right arm. They slowly walked off The Tube and into the lift. The other team members waited for the lift to return and climbed on.

“Common room please,” M said and the lift pinged, rising beneath their feet.

“I need to tell Nat what happened,” T mumbled.

“She is NOT going to like this,” C warned. T put her head in her hands and leaned against the wall.

“I know, I know, I just need to tell her about the slavers and how they have her money and she’s not going to be able to get it back.”

“And what are you going to say about Derg?” M asked. T sighed and shrugged.

“I- I don’t know. I figured we could drop him and his sister off somewhere, maybe another planet. She doesn’t have to know.”

“So what are you going to tell her?” M asked, more urgently.

“I’ll say he’s in the hands of the Authority, I guess, I don’t know,” T threw her hands up in resignation of her terrible plan. The lift reached the common room and the team members exited. T plopped on S’s chair in front of the large screen and activated her holo-screen.

“I think I’m going to go take a show-” M began to walk to her room.

“Nope, sit,” C sat on a couch and patted the seat next her, “T’s gonna need backup. Plus you’re supposed to be the girlfriend.” 

M sighed, “The girlfriend can’t take a shower?” C patted the couch, and with a huff, M sat. T punched a few spots on her screen and a swirling circle appeared on the large wall screen. A moment later it was replaced by Nat’s face. She lounged in a chair and looked down at her down holo-screen, but it gave the impression that was was much larger and looking down at T in judgment.

“Wow you look terrible, nice bruise,” she greeted them. It was at that point that T remembered the punch to her face and finally, now that her adrenaline was wearing off, felt her cheek throb.  
“Not now Nat,” she muttered as she reached up to rub her cheek.

“Did you find my guy?” Nat asked.

“Oh we found him.” T leaned back in the chair. “On a slaver ship.” 

Nat whistled, “Wow that’s a new low for him.”

“No, they took his sister. He stole the money from you to get her back.” Nat didn’t respond for a moment. Her face didn’t change expression either. She looked like a robot that froze, trying to process a particularly large file and finally she rebooted.

“So where’s my money?”

“In the hands of the Authority,” T informed her.

“Well that’s gone now,” Nat sighed.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“And Derg?”

“The Authority has him too,” T lied. Nat stared at her in shock.

“You gave the Authority a known thief?”

“Yes,” T said. Nat’s expression quickly grew more angry.

“Why would you do that?!”

“It’s what we always do.” T sat up, leaning over the edge of the chair, obviously irritated by Nat’s reaction, “We lock off the brig, disable the ship and report it to the Authority. They are probably picking them up now.” 

Nat’s face turned bright red, “If I had wanted the Authority involved in this I wouldn’t have contacted you! I didn’t want this kid thrown in jail! He has multiple warrants out for him on top of his previous charge. He is never going to see the light of day again!” T jumped up in frustration and turned away from the screen. M could see her clench fists and assumed she was trying to control her anger. It didn’t seem to work because T whirled around. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?! You can’t pick and choose what information to reveal when it’s right for you! If we had known that, we would have changed the way we planned everything!” T yelled, “Also If you already knew he was a thief why in the hell did you hire him, Nat?! Why are you even surprised he stole from you?!”

“That’s what beings ARE on Baumar! You don’t understand! I can’t believe you would do this and for a kid who just wanted to get his sister free,” Nat screamed back through the screen. C shifted uncomfortably in her seat next to M who looked to T, ready to take cues for help.

“I don’t understand?! You’re not even from there! What makes you understand more than me?!” T yelled back. Nat opened her mouth to scream something back when T held her hand up. “All right! All right! Stop.” She paused and glanced to M and C before looking at the floor. She took a deep breath and admitted, “It’s pointless fighting about this when the Authority doesn’t have him. We do. We’ve got both of them.” Nat deflated far too quickly and looked through the screen cooly.

“That’s what I thought. Talk about revealing information when it’s good for you,” Nat sighed, “Now you can bring him back here.”

“Nat, no, you just said it. He was just trying to help his sister. We were going to drop them off somewhere and you don’t have to worry about him again,” T prompted, but Nat didn’t bite. She her cool gaze changed to a heated glare.

“You’re going to bring him back here and you’re going to do it now.” T dove back into her anger.

“Nat, I’m not going to do that!” She barked, “I know you and I’m not giving that kid to you. You can act like you care about him and don’t want him arrested, but if I give him back to you, you’ll do something to punish him. This isn’t a negotiation. He has nothing you want.” Nat didn’t yell this time, but instead grew very still in a way that made M feel very uneasy. She even felt C shift in her seat.

“You’re right this isn’t a negotiation. You’re bringing him back or I am going to broadcast your real name and the location of the entire Prism team across the galaxy,” Nat hit a button and the screen switched back to the swirling circle. T’s mouth fell open. She became a statue in the middle of the room staring at the screen in shock. C stood and cautiously moved forward.  
“Uh, T? Are you o-”

“Damn it!” T screamed and punched the screen. A rapid burst of pixels danced across the screen radiating from the impact point, but other than that it seemed unaffected. She stomped over to the lift which opened automatically. She then swung back around to her friends.

“I’m so stupid! This is my fault! This is my fault!” She yelled, “We are never helping her again!” She turned back and stormed into the lift shouting, “Gym!” and disappeared behind the door. Her two teammates sat in silence, staring after her.

“This isn’t… good,” M said.

“No, it’s really not,” C sighed and walked over to the screen to make sure it was really as fine as it looked.

“Why is she going to the gym?”

“Probably hit things,” C opened up her holo-screen, “This happens sometimes when she gets really upset. She just need a minute and she’ll be okay.”

“She just goes and hits thing?” M asked.

“Yeah, I think it’s good. It’s a good anger release,” C smiled. M nodded, but didn’t say anything for a moment.

“What do you really know about Nat?” she finally asked.

C sighed, “Mostly just what T has told us, so not much, she doesn’t really talk about her. But I did some digging on my own. Sealed record from when she was a kid and then bouncing around to planet to planet, a couple of arrests, even more investigations that they couldn’t make stick.”

M nodded, “Does T not talk about her because she knows you don’t like her?” C seemed to mull this over before answering.

“You know, maybe? She didn’t talk about her before the first time we helped her...”

“But then she didn’t even want to tell you it was Nat that needed help,” M finished.

“I mean we have good reason,” C pointed out.

“Oh I agree, but she just seems to be really hurting right now, and feeling really guilty. I mean, Nat just dropped a pretty big bomb on her, that can’t feel good.”

“Yeah,” C sighed again, “Maybe I should go talk to her.”

“Or maybe I should,” M suggested.

“Really? I mean I know her really well, I know how to talk to her when she’s upset.”

“Yeah, but it might be good that I’m new. I’m kinda neutral,” M shrugged.

“So after the ringer that T has put you through the last week, you still want to help her out?” C smiled, “You’re the best fake girlfriend.”

M laughed, “I figure, I’m going to be here awhile, or at least I hope to be, I wanna be a team player. And if she doesn’t want to talk that’s fine. I could really do with that shower.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m going to run diagnostics on the screen. It’s probably fine, but you know, she’s strong.” She tapped the screen before pausing and looked at the ceiling. “Art, we’re headed back to Baumar please.” The ship pinged.

“So we’re going to do it?” M stood up and crossed her arms. “Take him back to her. What is she going to do to him?”

“Well, we’ll take him back, but we’ll also make sure she doesn’t hurt him,” C smiled at M and then continued her work.

M sighed deeply as she climbed onto the lift, directing it to the gym. When the door opened she found T, bouncing around a punching bag, throwing punches bare knuckled left and right. She turned when she heard the lift open and breathing heavily.

“Did you need something?” T asked brusquely.

“Well, uh, that whole thing was kind of rough.” M stepped into the room. “I wanted to make sure my fake girlfriend was okay.” T puffed out of her nose which resembled a laugh and went back to punching the bag, but slower. She didn’t look at M when she began to speak.

“I knew she would do something like this. I knew what might happen and I chose to help her anyway. Now I’ve put the entire team in danger. All because I just wanted to, as you said, beat her in a break up. I thought for a second that maybe, now she had a business and seemed to settle down, that she had changed, but that was stupid. I should have known she hadn’t.” M leaned against the wall. 

“Beings are patterns, right?” M said, reminded of what C had told her in the engine room.

“Yeah,” T sighed and slammed her fist into the bag.

“Well, we all make stupid choices when it comes to exes sometimes.”

“This level stupid?” T rolled her eyes, another punch.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have agreed to help, you made a selfish move,” M said bluntly. She crossed her arms and leaned her shoulder against the side of the lift. T finally stopped punching with a real laugh, turning to look at M.

“Thanks,” she said. M wasn’t sure if T was being sarcastic or not.

“Sorry to be blunt, but-” M started.

“No, seriously. Thank you for not trying to sugar coat it, cause C would do that and try to make me feel better. S would lecture me and try to fix it. Are you gonna do either of those? Cause if so, I’m taking that thanks back.”

“No, I won’t,” M chuckled.

“Well then, thanks,” T leaned against the opposite wall, “sometimes, you know, I don’t need someone to fix it, just acknowledge it. It might sound weird, but it kind of helps to have someone agree with me. Even if I’m saying I messed up.”

“Anytime.”

“Good, I need someone on this ship who will agree with me more,” T joked.

“Oh no, I mean telling you that you messed up. Happy to, anytime,” M smirked. T looked at the floor, but couldn’t hide the smile that spread across her face. Silently, they both enjoyed the moment of humor before M broke the silence. “Listen, are we… good? I know you didn’t want me here, but I am here and I have been trying my hardest to work with you as a team. I just need to know you’re going to do the same for me.”

T nodded, “You helped me fake a relationship in front of my ex when you didn’t even want to, after I’ve been terrible to you. So yeah, we’re good, and I’ll be better." 

“Thanks,” M nodded back.

“Thanks for coming to help me, again,” a smile flickered across T’s face and disappeared. “Are we headed back?”

“Yup.”

“She’s gonna try and hurt him.”

“And we’re gonna try and stop that. I don’t know if it will help you win in your break up, but at least we’ll save the kid.” T pushed herself off the wall and stood in front of the bag again, absentmindedly punching it softly.

“Don’t really care about winning the break up anymore. She crossed a line this time. Now I’m just mad.”

“Is that a good thing?” M asked and T turned to look at her again.

“Well, it’s not bad,” T raised a eyebrow and smiled slyly.

~

Art Two broke the atmosphere right on top of Setmarku, whose glowing, red letters seemed ominous this time. Derg and Shany were strapped into two seats in the back while this time T and C stood behind M and S in the front seats. Shany was shaking a little as Derg clutched her hand. He was still, but very pale. When M landed the craft right in front of the bar T jumped out and beckoned at Derg.

“Come on, I need you to at least show your face.” C stayed stayed in the craft with Shany, hurriedly working on her holo-screen, but M and S jumped down, flanking T. Before the group walked into the bar, Nat and the tall furry bartender walked out with a heavily muscled human man. The two groups stared at each other from a few feet away. Nat broke the silence.

“I’m glad you decided to come back.”

“Well, you threatened my friends and I, so didn’t have much of a choice,” T responded shrewdly.

“Hey S, how’s your stomach?” Nat leaned over to grin at the woman behind T.

“The farther away from you, the better it is,” S glared back.

“Well I’m surprised you could come down then,” Nat teased.

“Quit stalling,” S snapped.

“Yes, I’ll take my bartender back now please,” Nat said to T. The muscled human took a step towards Derg, but T stepped in front of him and spoke to Nat.

“I brought him back Nat, but you don’t get him. He was just trying to help his sister.”

“He could have asked,” Nat shrugged.

“Yeah, he could have, but this is Baumar, you really think he would expect help?”

“I can still blast your location.”

“But you can’t,” everyone turned to see C poking her head out of Art Two and waving her wrist with her holo-screen open, “I hacked in and disabled your communication systems. You can’t send anything out until we work through this.” Nat shot a look at the muscled human and he tried to push T to the side. T tripped him and he fell, sprawled on the ground. She kicked him in the head knocking him out. She saw the furry bartender fall to the ground after being shot by S. Nat darted forward, but M punched her in the face, before she could get near Derg and she, too, fell down to her knees.

“Nice!” T told M. T stepped over to Nat and pulled the blonde’s arms behind her back.

“Ah, yes, very nice,” Nat barked, and she spit out some blood, “It’s so nice that your girlfriend punches your ex. Isn’t that like a mating call for Ongori?” 

“Shut up,” T barked, rolling her eyes. “You’re such a bitch,” she murmured under her breath before calling to C, “Get Shany out here please” Still holding Nat’s arms, she turned to Derg. “You run away, don’t come back here. And please don’t get picked up by slavers again.” Derg nodded and when Shany’s feet hit the ground, he grabbed her hand and they ran toward the town.

“He has a tracker. I can easily find him!” Nat pointed out, laughing.

“Well, no, actually” S said. She had her gun trained on the furry bartender & the muscled human in case they woke up, “I took that out.”

“And if you try to search for them, we’ll know,” C tapped her holo-screen twice to draw attention to it and grinned, “I am in every nook & cranny of your system now.” T cocked her head.  
“Think about what you just said,” T told her.

C blushed, “Oh that’s probably the wrong way to say that, but you get it.” T’s lips quirked up in a quick smile before frowning down at the back of Nat’s head.

“So, we good?” Nat nodded reluctantly and T slowly let go of Nat’s arms. Nat calmly got up from the ground and brushed herself off. She turned around and without warned socked T in the face on the same side as the already yellow bruise from earlier. Then walked back inside. The four Prism members reacted all at once.

“Are you kidding me?!” T groaned, instinctively touching her cheek. 

“Whoa!” C shouted, jumped down from Art Two & running over to her.

“What is wrong with you?!” S snapped at Nat’s retreating back. 

“Are you OK?” M asked, putting her hand on T’s shoulder.

“Fine,” T growled before she spun around and marched into the bar.

“No, T let’s just go!” S called after her.

“Just give me one minute!” T said.

“T-” C started, but T interrupted her holding up her pointer finger.

“One. minute!” She stormed into the bar and had to stop to let her eyes adjust to the dark. She saw Nat behind the bar filling a towel with ice and resting it on her nose. T stomped over to her.

“What was that?” she barked. 

“Shhh!” Nat gave her a sardonic look, “Do you want everyone to hear you?!” Her eyes flicked around at a few patrons who were staring.

“I don’t really care!” T insisted, just as loudly.

“Fine! Over here! Just… you have to be quiet. I’m going to lose customers,” she sighed and her expression softened. She gestured to a round booth in the back corner, out of sight of most of the bar. T hesitated before following her over. Nat scooted to the back of the booth while T placed her hands flat on the table, glaring at Nat. Nat nodded at the spot next to her, indicating T should sit.

“Excuse me? No!” T snapped. Nat glanced around the bar again.. When she was satisfied everyone had gone back to their drinks, she sighed again. From her pocket, she pulled out a rolled up wad of paper and threw it across the table at T.

“Payment,” she said simply. T picked up the roll and looked at Nat, shocked.

“How can you afford this after the robbery?” T asked, growing more annoyed by the second, “How are you even still open? Don’t be all secretive, actually tell me this time!” Nat rolled her eyes and leaned back against the booth, still holding the towel to her face.

“I got insurance, okay? Actual insurance, like a legitimate business.” T raised her eyebrows, that was the last thing she expected to hear.

“Please sit,” Nat asked and patted the seat next to her. T finally gave in and scooted over to sit by Nat.

“Nat,” T gave her a solemn look, but couldn’t take Nat seriously with the towel of ice pressed to her face. T reached up and pulled the towel down and looked straight into Nat’s face. “You can’t tell anyone my name. Do you understand me? You can’t even tell anyone you know my name. There are beings that would kill for that.” Nat nodded.

“I won’t. I promise.”

“And we can’t help you again.”

“But I paid this time.”

“Nat, you caused half the problems in this job! You always do and I- I can’t do that to my team again.” Nat stared down at the table before looking back up at T, but didn’t respond. “You weren’t like this when we were dating. I mean, you weren’t easy, and you weren’t always the nicest, but neither was I, really. But you were safe, I could trust you.” Nat turned to look at her surprised.

“You left me, you took this job where I would never see you, and you just left me.”

“No,” T shook her head, “you don’t get to put this all on me. I asked you and you said you were okay with it. If you weren’t honest, then you can’t put that on me.”

M sighed and looked down to her fingers playing with the fraying edges of the towel in front of her. “You’re right. I hate that, but you’re right.” She turned back to T and smiled. “I miss you, ya know. I know, I’m…problematic, but we were always good together.” Nat lifted a hand up and brushed T’s cheek. She leaned away and looked down which made Nat chuckle. “Oh, what? Your fake girlfriend wouldn’t like that?” T’s eyes snapped back up to Nat’s face.

“How did you know?”

“I'm not stupid and I know you too well.” Nat nodded past T, who turned and saw M & C walk into the bar looking around for her. “Do you see that actually going anywhere?” T’s eyes flicked from M to the table and back to Nat.

“Uh, I hadn’t thought about it.”

“Liar,” Nat chucked, “She’s is too cute for you not to have thought about it.”

T shook her head, “I just asked her to pretend to be my girlfriend cause I was still mad at you for dumping me like you did. That’s why I act nice, like I like you, why I keep helping you. I just wanna catch you off guard so I can win the break up.” Nat looked slightly taken aback before chuckling and lifting the towel off the table.

“I think you beat me.”

“Well, she did technically,” T said gesturing to M and they both laughed.

“Well, if you two don’t get together, then you know where to find me.” Nat leaned in and kissed her. T was so surprised, she lingered for a moment. Before she could come to her senses and pull away Nat broke the kiss.

“Nat…” T paused, trying to think of something to say, and when she couldn’t, she simply said, “Bye.” T scooted out of the booth with the money balled in her fist. Without looking at C and M, she left the bar and they followed her out. S already had Art Two started up. M took over and as soon as they were all strapped in, she took off. It wasn’t until they left the atmosphere that C finally turned to T.

“I put a tag on her system. If she sends anything out about Prism it will be automatically sent to us,” C reassured her. T closed her eyes and smiled.

“Thank you that actually makes me feel a lot better.”

“So, uh, we saw the kiss. You guys aren’t getting back together, are you?” C asked cautiously. A coughing, choking sound came from the front and they looked up to see S rubbing her chest, but she didn’t say anything. M was very pointedly stared straight forward.

“Uh, no… no way,” T gave a shaky laugh and shook her head, “That’s never going to happen.”


	3. Prism Part 3: Home is Where The Hacker Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 3: Home is Where The Hacker Is
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

C floated midair in her library, the large room in Art that housed its massive computer. It practically was a library since the computer could store a massive amount of electronic books and references, but it couldn’t entirely compare. The screen fit the two story room and curved in a circle with the outer wall of the ship. It was the only room on the ship where the artificial gravity was turned off so C could float through the room pulling up different programs, whether for hacking, researching, or leisure.

She was re-reading her favorite book again, the page as large as her when a spinning wheel appeared in to her left indicating that C had and incoming call. She made a swimming motion in the air and drifted lazily toward it. She activated her holo-screen watch and hit a button to accept it. T’s face appeared on the giant screen, so large that her head was the size of C’s entire body.  
Behind her C could see the inside of Art Two with S at the controls.

“Having fun relaxing?” T teased her friend.

“I’m not relaxing, I’m working. I looked up everything on the Intergalactic Wide Network about this electronic company that hired us,” C defended. She tapped her holo-screen and the IWN pages popped to the front of the screen on the bottom left corner.

“Yes YERN, so did you learn anything about YERN?” T asked playfully and smirked.

“Ha ha, you’re so funny. I learned nothing interesting that we didn’t already know,” C continued scrolling through the netpages.

“Anything on the not so wide Intergalactic Network?” T hinted.

“If you’re asking about hacking, no I didn’t hack into the mainframe of one of the biggest electronic companies in the galaxy. They literally have a team of beings who know how to prevent that. Though, I appreciate you think I can do that by myself. If you’re asking about the dark web then nothing more than some far-fetched conspiracy theories in some chat rooms about brain hacking or something.” She pulled up the chat rooms and began scrolling through the comments, each more outlandish than the last.

“Mmmm, so what book are you reading now?” T asked off-handed.

“Masked Within,” C answered automatically still scrolling, then realizing what she said she glowered at T, “Hey you tricked me!” T laughed.

“It’s what I’m good at. I knew you were relaxing.” C gave a short laugh and continued the banter.

“Well I’m sure you’re barely working.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” T laughed, “S is flying and I’m just sitting here looking pretty. I know you said YERN owned that entire moon for their research facility, but it’s a lot different to see it than hear about it. I wish you could have come.”

C sighed wistfully, “I would love to get a glimpse inside just one of those computer labs. I think I would die happy. But I understand the two being limit for security and you having to go since you’re the tactical officer and I don’t know how to fly Art Two.” Her voice became increasingly taunting as she went over all the security precautions YERN had put on Prism’s short visit to the facility.

T laughed again, “Well maybe one day we can break in for ya. We’re almost back. We’ll meet you and M in the common area to brief you.”  
“Sounds like a plan. Though, I have no idea where M is, hold on,” C turned her face to the ceiling, “Hey Art, do you know where M is?” A ping sounded above her followed by the automated voice of their ship, “M is currently in the engine room.”

“Don’t worry about getting her,” T offered, “I’ll get her when I drop this case off in the valuables storage. See you soon!” She cut off the video transmission and C deactivated her holo-screen watch before making another swimming motion and floating down to the small glass room near the lift. As soon as she was near enough to it she grabbed a handle and pulled herself inside. Hitting a button to her left, the door slid shut. Her feet drifted down as the artificial gravity gradually increased. When her feet felt solid on the floor, she exited the small chamber through the door on the opposite side and into the lift, traveling up to the common area.

~

Once Art Two arrived back, T ran the black case up a short metal grate flight of stairs and through a door in the wall that separated Art’s hangar from its large, bright, white walled engine room. The circular room was filled with a soft hum, but not a lot of sound came from the advanced electric engine that kept their entire home running. The huge, silver engine stood towering over her in the middle of the room, little white lights flashed all over its surface. It looked like a sphere had been stretched and pulled in opposite directions from the top and bottom to create a pointed tip cylinder shape that bulged in the middle and opened up at the bottom. Circling around it, a metal grate platform was set the outer walls of the room, a few feet above the floor.  
T placed her hand on a panel set into the wall to the right of the door. A ping sounded and the a wall panel slid open to reveal 4 rows of shelves that were all empty. She slid the case onto one and then placed her hand on the panel again. Once the panel slid shut and pinged again she turned around and looked around the room for M. All T could see was machinery so she began walking around the metal grate. Once she walked in a full circle and couldn’t find M she looked at the ceiling.

“Uh Art, are you sure M’s in here?” T asked the ship.

“Down here!” A voice called from below her, “What brings you to the engine room?” A ping came from above and Art said, “Affirmative.” She looked down and she saw M’s feet sticking out from underneath the engine. She bent down, resting her hands on her knees.

“Just putting the case we picked up from YERN in our secure storage,” T explained.

“Oh you mean, the vault?” M rolled out on a rolling palette from under the engine looking up through the grate.

“It’s not so much vault, but more of a closet with a little extra security,” T shrugged.

“So a vault?” M grinned.

“Whatever,” T rolled her eyes and glanced up at the engine, “So you skipped out on flying down to a research facility that covers an entire moon to lay underneath the engine?” T teased.

“You all know I can fly, you didn’t need me for that. If I’m going to be able to do my job to its full extent I need to know every inch of this engine,” she explained.

“How’s that going?”

“It’s, well, extensive. Have you ever looked up at it from underneath, though? It’s kind of pretty,” she began to roll back underneath, but T put out a hand to stop her.

“I’ll do it later, right now we’ve got to run to a briefing on this secure transport job,” she stood up and looked around, “How did you even get down there?” The metal grating and the engine were only a couple of inches apart and she couldn’t see any sort of opening. M smiled, sighed and climbed off the cart to stand hunched, underneath the grating. She pushed on one of the panels and it swung upwards so she could pull herself up to stand next to T.

“You’ve been on this ship how long again?” M joked as she pushed the panel closed again. It landed with a loud clang that intermingled with T’s laugh.

“Can you shoot yet?” T slung back as she walked to the door leading back to the hanger. 

M followed, laughing, “Let’s stick with what we’re good at shall we?” T turned around and walked backwards down the stairs and gave a over exaggerated two fingered salute.

“Deal.”

~

“All right, this one is pretty simple,” S told the group all sitting around the table in the common area, “We just need to transport this case to another of YERN’s facilities. It’s apparently very valuable though so they’re not comfortable with normal shipping.”

“Where are we headed?” M asked.

“Narnan,” T replied.

“Wow, they have a facility that far out?” M raised her eyebrows.

“Seems like, didn’t ask really, just plan to do what we’re being paid for,” T shrugged.

“So it will take us about 3 days to get there,” S interjected, “C can scan the area around us, make sure no one is pursuing. There shouldn’t be any other ships around though since Narnan is so isolated.”

“No problem,” C nodded.

“Other than that we basically get 3 days of being paid to do whatever we want,” T grinned and leaned back in her chair putting her feet up on the table. S frowned.  
“We need to be prepared though, in case someone DOES try to get the case; and please take your feet down.”

“I’ll carry my gun,” T joked, but removed her feet from the table.

S sighed, “That’s not what I mean.” Out of the center of the table a small robot only a little bigger than M’s fist rose up. 

“Whoa, is that one of the robots?” M asked surprised. “I’ve been here for two weeks now, and read in the user manual you gave me that the ship utilized smaller robots for things, but I hadn’t seen one yet.”

“Yeah, it’s one of Art’s cleaning bots,” C said off handed. It rolled over to where T’s feet were a moment ago and sprayed a chemical and then wiped the area down with a towel that appeared from the center of its body. When it had dried everything off it rolled back to the center and descended back into the table.

“Well I mean, it’s not like we do the cleaning around here,” T shrugged.

“Yes thankfully, because judging by your quarters nothing would get done,” S said. T playfully stuck her tongue out at her and C giggled.

“There’s robots for all over the ship right?” M asked. “Like for training down in the gym or to help S in the med lab?”  
“Yeah, you even have a couple down in the hangar,” T confirmed.  
“Really?! Oh that’s great. I haven’t reached that part of the manual. There’s a lot to read.”  
“Yeah, I never did that,” T shrugged, “I just sort of learned as I went.”  
“Anyway!” S interrupted, rolling her eyes, “We need to be prepared in case we do get attacked. We’ll be out in the middle of nowhere for a big part of this job.”  
“Oh, S, you act like I need to patrol the halls or something,” T chided. “No one can get on this ship without Art or C seeing them first. It’ll be fine. Worse comes to worse, I’ll get the bazooka again.” T stood up and gave S a side hug. S didn’t return it and her face still held the expression that said she didn’t like it when T didn’t seem to take these types of jobs seriously.  
“If we’re done, I’ll start setting up an alarm system for any ships that come near us,” C rose from the table.  
“We’re done, go do whatever you want while getting paid, I guess,” S waved her hand at C dismissing her.  
“Can I see what you’re doing?” M asked C.  
“Sure! Oh! You haven’t been in the library yet, I’d love to show you!” C’s face lit up and the two left for the lift.  
“Fantastic, I’m going to go patrol,” T said sarcastically and left the common area heading to her quarter. S rolled her eyes and huffily plopped into her chair by the large screen in the common area.  
“Art! Take us to Narnan please,” S said to the ceiling. A ping rang above with Art’s voice saying, “On route to Narnan.”

~

“Watch yourself,” C warned. She and M exited the lift and walked through the first door into the small glass room separating the library from the rest of the ship. M was staring in awe at the large screen, but looked back to see C hit a button on the wall. Their feet slowly left the floor as the artificial gravity decreased.

“You good?” C asked and M nodded, “Okay let’s go!” She pressed the other button that opened the door second door, pushing off the door frame to float up into the large room as M followed. She watched as C hit a button on her holo-watch and the large screen flared to life completely surrounding them.

“Whoa,” M breathed.

“Yeah it’s pretty great,” C’s eyes traveled lovingly over her computer screen, her blueish green skin shone a bit brighter in the white light emanating off it and her silver hair practically glittered.

“Why?” M asked vaguely still trying to comprehend the screen.

“What?” C asked.

“Why is it this big?” M asked again, “Why is this needed?”

“Well honestly,” C shrugged and grinned, “it’s not needed, not really. It just looks pretty cool.” She looked over to M who still looked confused. “I mean, I didn’t put it in. It was here when I got joined the team. Frankly, it has a lot of power which is great for hacking, especially from long distances. If I need to work on multiple things at once then I don’t need multiple monitors and again, it looks very cool.” M laughed.

“I control it off my holo-screen so I float back here and take it all in,” C activated her holo-watch and grinned. She tapped it and a program pulled up near the top of the screen a little to their left. The program showed a blue dot in the center of black with faint gray concentric circles radiating from the center.

“What are you doing now?” M asked.

“I am setting up an alarm. If any ship comes within an hour of travel from us we’ll know,” C explained while tapping her holo-screen.

“A hour? That seems like a big radius,” M looked back at the Tartek.

“Well it won’t be that big once we get closer to Narnan. There’s nothing out there. Here we might get a few false alarms.” As if the program was trying to give an example, a blaring noise sounded above them and the screen turned red. A square popped up on the screen and they could see just outside Art a large commercial liner moving across the frame.

“Yup false alarm, ART! FALSE ALARM,” the alarm stopped, “Please tell T and S,” C asked. “Now I’m going to set Art on an avoidance course. Art tends to set his own course when we direct him somewhere, but on a job like this I want him to actively avoid other ships in the distance,” once again she tapped a few buttons on her holo-screen and the concentric circles on the larger one glowed for a moment. 

“If other ships do see us, what do we ident as?” M asked.

“Livestock transport.”

“Seriously?” M laughed.

“Yeah, nobody cares about a livestock ship, so we pretty much get left alone.”

“This is hysterical and brilliant.” 

“I agree,” C laughed and continued working, “All right, so now if he detects a ship on the edge of this hour perimeter he will move away, but keep on route. If the ship keeps coming towards us he will sound the alarm.”

“So we’ll probably get more false alarms while we’re still at this end of the system?” M asked.

“Well, I hope you didn’t mind that alarm so much because... yeah,” C sighed, “I’ll stay here and monitor it for awhile so I can quickly shut it down when it is false, but you might want to go to bed a little late tonight unless you want to be woken up for no reason.”

“Well I did want to get back to examining the engine so I guess I’ll stay there awhile, but this is incredible.” She gestured around at the screen.

“Yeah, come in anytime! “I’ve got a million books on this thing, you can even transfer them to your holo-screen and take them with you. Even some from, uh, libraries that might have been hacked into,” C looked off to the side with a mischievous look on her face.

“No, really?” M half laughed, but not sure if this was a joke or not.

“Well, yes. Since we aren’t based anywhere I can’t really have a library account, so I kind of just find them where I can,” M was still staring at her with her mouth open a little bit. “I’m not a monster!” C defended, “Each of those libraries received a large donation after we left the system.” 

“Well at least there’s that, but you could also buy them,” M smiled.

“I like helping the libraries,” C defended. M chuckled and sighed.

“Then I’ll have to come get something to read sometime. Uh, could you give me a hand down please?” C looked amused as she swam through the air over to M and then pushed her shoulders down. M made her way from there pushing at an angle on the floor and flailing her arms, finally catching onto the handles by the door.

“How do you do that everyday?” she called up.

“You get used to it,” C called back not taking her eyes off the screen.

~

After an a night with only two false alarms M and S were sitting at the table eating breakfast and discussing plans for their day.

“See I have this great formula which can heal any cut in about a minute, which is pretty common, but I think mine is the fastest. Though I’m trying to see if I can get it a bandage form,” S was telling M across the table in between bites, “Right now it’s a foam, but it’s messy. So the bandage would be easier out in the field-” T walked in with tousled hair still wearing wearing pajamas.

“Good morning,” M greeting her.

“Is it though?” T muttered, “Two false alarms and I hit my head on the wall when the second one went off.” She plopped into her seat at the table and S reached over to examine the bump.  
“Oh you’ll be fine, it’s basically gone, just have some coffee and you’ll feel better,” S waved off the injury.

T nodded to C’s seat, “Where’s C?”

“After that second false alarm she stayed down in the library,” M told her.

“Oh, she’s been up all night?” T shoulders sagged a little, “Now I feel a little bad for complaining.” She sighed and said, “Art, could I get some coffee please?”

Nothing happened.

“Art? Helloooo?” T knocked on the middle of the table that was depriving her of caffeine.

“That’s weird,” S stood up to stand over the center of the table, “It was fine five minutes ago.” 

T stood up and walked towards the lift, “I’m going to see C. Maybe she decided to do maintenance and didn’t realize what time it-”

T, who had been looking back to the other woman as she spoke and assuming the lift door would open automatically like always, was interrupted when she slammed into it and fell backwards onto the floor.

“What the hell?!” T cursed. Her teammates rushed over to help her up.

“You like running into walls, don’t you?” M joked, referring to the time T fell over a wall on Travia. She was brushing T off unnecessarily, but it felt like the right thing to do. S was yet again examining her head.

“No! Actually I don’t!” T barked, “What is going on?!”

“I’m going to have a look at the engine,” M strode to a wall panel next to the lift and pressed on the upper left corner. It popped open on hinges to reveal a ladder. She turned back to T who was staring dumbfounded.

“What you didn’t know about this either?” M asked gesturing to the ladder.

“We’ve never needed to,” T told her.

“I knew,” S said and T gave her an annoyed look.

“Why do you know more about this ship than I do?” T griped, though M felt there wasn’t any real annoyance behind it.

“I’m good at my job,” she winked.

“Rude,” T joshed. M grinned put on a pair of work gloves she pulled out of her back pocket, then jumped on the ladder and slid down. S and T poked their heads into the new alcove in the wall and saw her slide down the length of the ship until she disappeared in the darkness of the shaft.

“Okay, that was hot,” T said and S laughed.

“You get changed. I’ll go down and talk to C,” S said.

“Grab your ear piece before you go so I can talk to ya,” T advised as she turned back to her room, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

~

It took them longer than expected to get downstairs because first T had to help S force open the door to her quarters as, like the lift, it didn’t open automatically for her, like usual. Once S grabbed her ear comm, she helped T get into her own room. T changed quickly into pants and a shirt before grabbing her own ear comm and her utility belt. In the belt she stuck a knife from under her bed and a gun from her dresser drawer.

“Do you really think you need all that?” S asked.

“You don’t know why the ship has shut down,” T insisted, “I want to be prepared.”

“It’s patrol the halls, huh?” S teased her with her own words and T responded with a high pitched mocking laugh. They descended down the same ladder M had used, but slower, actually stepping on the rungs. When they reached a panel with glowing letters that read, “Library”, T kicked at the same side of the wall that had opened at the top. It busted open with a crash and she hopped out onto the level.

“I’ve got C. You go do to the engine room so we all can be connected by comms. We’ll meet you down there soon,” T suggested. 

S nodded as she continued down the ladder, “See you there.” 

The library level was pitch black and T pulled a flashlight out of her utility belt and held it next to her head. She pushed the button on the back end of the cylinder and the front lit up. When she let go, it hovered in midair and followed her as she forced open the door to the small room that usually reconfigured the artificial gravity. On the other side of the glass room in the library she could see C floating. She obviously trying to gain leverage to try and open the door, but without gravity she wasn’t having any luck.

“Hey, hey, I’ve got you,” T said though realized C couldn’t hear her through the thick glass and waved for C to back up. C pushed off from the door and floated back a little. T tried to force the first door open like the others, but it was heavier than the others and had a stronger locking mechanism since its room separated the huge gravityless library and the rest of the ship.

“Agh! Back up a little more,” T said and gestured to C, who floated backward again. T pulled her gun out and aimed where the door should latch. She could see C waving her arms and shaking her head, but T ignored her and shot the door. I rushed open with a crash and the glass shattered. 

“Oops,” T muttered. With the door open, the two gravity states intermingled and T’s feet shot out behind her. For a moment she floated a few feet off the floor and then both women fell hard onto it. The flashlight fell with them and when it hit the ground T heard a crack before the light went out.

“Ow!” T exclaimed.

“What took you so long?” C complained as she stood and held her hand out to help T up, “I’ve been down here for ages. You all didn’t notice?”

“We noticed,” T took her hand and hauled herself up, “Did you notice ship is down? It took us awhile to get here.”

“Do we know what’s happening yet?” C asked, “I can’t connect to Art on my holo-screen at all.” A whirring noise sounded behind them and they turned to see the lift light up.

“Did M get it working again?” T excitedly asked, walking toward it, “She went down to the engine room to see if something was wrong there.”

“It wasn’t working before?” C asked.

“Uh, no, I kind of walked into the door,” T said, a little abashed.

“Is that how you got the bump on your head?” C reached up as if to touch it, but T pulled her head back.

“That’s- yeah, don’t worry about it.” She reached up to press her ear comm, “S, are you in the engine room yet?” S didn’t respond.

“Hello? S can you hear me?” Again, she heard nothing.

“Ugh, stupid piece of shit,” T smacked at the device.

“No need for that, what’s it done to you?” C scolded mockingly.

“It’s not working, that’s what it’s done,” T criticized and sighed, “Let’s just go down there and see what’s going on.” She cautiously stepped in front of the door which opened automatically like normal and C followed. “Oh, excellent! Hangar, please Art,” T said and a ping sounded above.

“This makes me nervous,” C told her friend as the elevator moved down. She had her holo-screen open, “If it wasn’t working before then why is it now? We can’t contact S and I still can’t connect to Art, so M might not have had time to fix anything.” T leaned against the handrail that ran along the circular frame and shrugged.

“Don’t know, don’t care as long as we get there,” she said. Immediately following her words, the lift suddenly dropped.

“What’s happening?!” C screamed. T didn’t answer, but instead jumped up and hit the ceiling. A trapdoor popped opened and she quickly used the handrail climbed up.

“Grab my legs!” T yelled over the acceleration whine of the lift dropping. C did and T caught a rail on the side of the lift shaft and the lift dropped below leaving them hanging. C grasped a second rail and pulled herself level with T. They looked down and watched the lift stop with a jerk at the very bottom of the shaft and the light inside went out.

“So seems like there might be a few bugs still with the lift,” T quipped breathing heavily.

“That’s not funny,” C grumbled and she began to climb to a panel above them marked “Gym”. 

T followed behind her, “Do you think M knows the thing about the trapdoor in the top of the lift? Cause then I’d know something about the ship that she doesn’t,” T chuckled.

“I’m sure she does,” C called back. Below them they heard a whirring. Looking down they saw the light come back on inside the lift.

“That can’t be good,” T said warningly. The lift began to move toward them steadily gaining speed. “Go, go, go!” she yelled to C who climbed the last few feet to the gym’s door for the lift and forced it to slid open. C jumped through and T pulled herself up to the level just in time to see the lift rocket past them.

“What is going on with this ship?!” T yelled as she hit the corner of the wall panel that housed the ship length ladder.

~

M and S heard a banging noise and turned to see T and C clamber through the door into the engine room. They both looked tired and sweaty. The only difference in their appearances was that T looked angry and annoyed while C looked shaken.

“What happened to you?” S asked walking over to them. T hit her ear comm and they both heard a loud whine of feedback causing S to rip hers out of her ear. 

“Oh great, now they work!” T vented.

“What are you talking about?” S snapped, replacing the device.

“Did you hear me earlier?!” T asked heatedly.

“No I didn’t! Now stop yelling and tell me what happened!” S said matching T’s tone.

“Did you get the lift back on?” C asked M who had popped her head through the metal grate around the engine when the other two entered.

“Noooo,” M said cautiously, “Is it back on?”

“And trying to kill us,” T flung her back against the wall and slid down into a sitting position and took a few deep breaths.

“What?” M asked her eyes growing wide. She pulled herself through the grate and sat on the edge leaning forward intently.

“We were up at the library and the lift came back on. We were on our way down here when it dropped,” C explained. 

“Are you okay?” S asked, automatically switching to her medical mode and walked towards C looking her up and down for any injuries. 

“We’re fine,” T assured her before turning to M, “Did you know there’s a trapdoor on the top of the lift?”

“Yes,” M replied, looking confused.

“Shit,” T whispered, “Well, yeah, there is, so we got out. Then it stopped and charged right back up, like it was after us.”

“Are you suggesting the lift was trying to hurt you?” S asked as though it was ludicrous. 

“That’s literally what I just said, it was trying to kill us,” T brusquely.

“Can I see that?” C asked nodding to M’s watch.

“My watch?” M asked and C nodded again. “Oh, sure,” M said sounding confused and slipped the watch off and handing it to C. Everyone watched silently as C worked for a few minutes. 

“I can’t connect to Art, not on my watch or hers,” C finally said, her voice wavering slightly as she handed back M’s watch.

“Yeah, that’s what I was working on when you came in,” M nodded. 

T slowly rose off the floor, “So what does that mean?”

“I can’t get into any computer system on the ship. I’m locked out,” C gave T a scared look.

“The engine program isn’t responding to me either,” M told them.

“So, again, what does that mean?” T asked again, clapping her hands together, “Is the engine dead? Is that why Art isn’t working?”

“The engine is running,” M confirmed.

“Art isn’t based in the engine, his system is spread throughout the ship, but the engine does power him,” C told them, “And if the lift is working, even if it not correctly, it means Art is working in some respect.”

“So the only thing wrong with the ship right now is all the systems are shutting us out. Could something else have control of the ship?” S asked.

“That’s impossible,” C whispered.

“Really? Because I think it’s happening,” M told her.

“No, it’s not possible. Nothing can hack our systems,” C opened and closed her fingers as though she was itching to fix something.

“Do we need to worry about air or anything? Gravity? What about the outer doors?” T asked. C shook her head.

“No, we should be fine in that respect, at least for now,” C explained, “The oxygen and outer doors are on a completely different system that isn’t connected to the main computer. It’s spread out through the ship so that it is almost impossible for it to down. If one part is damaged it just reroutes to another. Also a lot of the lighting systems are run on that like in here, the cell, the med unit. Basically most safety related things are connected to that system. And the artificial gravity is hardwired into each room. It can’t be controlled, well, except in the library.”

“So if someone hacked us-” M began.

“They can’t!” C repeated.

“But if someone hacked us,” M continued, “They wouldn’t be able to get to those things, at least, again, not right away? If they realized it was on a different system- well...” S pressed her fingers to her forehead trying to make herself concentrate. Her dark skin was more pale than usual. 

“What about food? Or water?” T asked.

“That is something we might have to worry about,” M said.

“No,” S chimed in. She tapped on her own holo-screen and then pulled out a 3D hologram of Art to show the team. “Art creates everything, but there is a small food store in the common room in case of crashes or something.”

“Right, I remember now from the dossier. There’s a trapdoor under the table,” M nodded, “We should probably send a pair up there to bring down food, water, and maybe blankets.”  
“Okay, I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to live in the engine room. Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? We should figure out what’s wrong and if it’s something that will take awhile to fix, then we’ll make a shopping trip.”

“Well, I’ll work on this,” M pointed at the engine, “Maybe hardwire into it and take back control. Whoever hacked us-”

“You can’t. Hack. Art!” C said pointedly, almost yelling, “I’ve tried. I’ve run tests to see what our weak points are and I have failed every single time.”

“Okay,” S put a hand on C’s arm as a comfort, “so it’s not a hack. Those false alarms last night, did someone get close to us while we were travelling?”

“What you think they jumped from their ship onto ours?” T scoffed.

“No, obviously no one can get on the ship unless we bring them,” S sighed, clearly annoyed and turned to T to tell her off, but instead she found T looking at her in shock. “What?” T snapped and pointed at S, nodding.

“We brought someone,” she paused and slowly looked over to the vault, “Well, something.” T turned back to the team and comically raised her eyebrows pretending to be dramatic.

“Can you just tell us what you’re trying to get at?” M said. T jogged over to the vault and placed her hand on the dark square next to the door. It didn’t do anything.

“Should have known,” T whispered and pulled out her gun. She tilted her head at S, “This is the second time now. Told ya I’d need it.” She shot where the latch for the door should be. It shot open like it was pulled back on a bungee cord and an alarm went off. A grid of metal bars dropped in front of the engine room. C and S covered their ears while M jumped down through the metal grate. She crawled underneath the engine and a moment later the alarm stopped, but the metal bars didn’t raise back up.

“Ripped out the alarm wire,” M called up, “Only thing I could do while the computers were down.” 

“And I know why,” T said, all the team members looked at her. She displayed the case from YERN, open. Inside was black foam that had a small square inset where something could fit, but was empty.

“Hardware,” T explained, “Something in this case got out, and into our systems. M immediately laid on the cart and rolled under the engine.

“Why would YERN want to shut us down?” S asked.

“I care less about the ‘why’ right now about more about the ‘what’ and ‘how’. As in what did it and how we fix it,” T said slamming the case shut and throwing it back on the shelf.

“How could it even get out of there?” S asked.

“Well seeing as how it can hijack our ship, I don’t think it would have a problem with a door,” T said.

“Can you please stop being sarcastic so we can solve this? I’m freaked out,” S snapped at her.

“Yeah, sorry,” T shoved her hands in her pockets and looked down to M’s feet. C had been very quiet, she sat cross legged on the grate and stared at her fingers. 

“This is my fault,” she said.

“How do you come to that conclusion?” T asked.

“I should have scanned the case when it came in,” C shrugged.

“I honestly don’t think that would have done anything,” S sat down on one side of her and T sat on the other.

“It probably would have just scanned as a hunk of metal,” T pointed out.

“But the ship is down, and attacking us and I do computers,” C sighed, “How am I supposed to do my job if the computers won’t work?”

“Well, I run medical and T is tactical,” S smiled, “so you can sit here with us and look at M’s shoes for a minute.”

“Yeah and very dirty shoes at that, what did she do to those poor things?” T said and looked hopefully at C to see if she was laughing. Her face fell when she saw C was still looking forlorn.

“It feels weird not to be connected to everything,” C said, “Like it’s too quiet.”

“Not me. I like the quiet,” S leaned back with her hands supporting her, looking up at the engine.

“Nah, I’m with C,” T said, putting her arm around C’s shoulders, “I was always taught when it’s silent, that’s when an attack is coming.”

“That’s not helpful,” S said.

“Is that what we were doing?” T asked, but smirked to show she was joking. This time C laughed a little, then called down to M.

“Need any help?”

“Nope, just a minute,” M’s muffled voice responded. The three Prism members fell into silence. They could hear M tinkering with the engine and the whirring of the mechanics inside the giant silver casing. Suddenly, C perked up.

“Do you hear that?”

“No, but granted I normally don’t listen,” T joked.

“Hold on,” C got up and walked over to the opening in the grate. She jumped down to the lower level and carefully tiptoed around the engine searching the floor. Both S and T watched her through the metal separating them, taking C’s cue and staying quiet. Even M slowly rolled out from under the engine to see what she was doing. Then C lunged forward and landed on the floor, her hands cupped against it making a small dome.

“What did you find?” S asked. C didn’t answer her, but clapped the palms of her hands together and slowly stood up, hunched beneath the grate. She looked like she was praying with her hands flat and tightly pressed together and her head bent to stare fixedly at it.

“Do you have a container or something?” C asked quietly and calmly, trying to stay very still. T jumped down to meet them. Out of her utility belt she pulled a little clear evidence bag they used in the field. S jumped down after her and they all crowded around C’s hands while T held the bag beneath them. C slowly dipped her hands into the bag and said, “When I say, close it quick. T nodded solemnly and the next moment hung heavy around them.

“NOW!” C opened her hands and whipped them out of the bag. T zipped it closed and held it up. Inside they could see a little metal square with tiny spindly legs on either side.

“C, is this really secure since it was able to get out of a locked door?” T asked. 

C grabbed the bag and held it up to her face to get a better look. The square bounced around, little legs waving, trying to gain footing. A small red light appeared from one end and the bag began to melt. T called out and M shot her hands out just underneath the bag to try and catch it if it fell out. C studied the square for a moment and finally pressed one of the sides that wasn’t currently shooting a laser. The legs stopped waving and the laser disappeared.

“Okay, it should be shut down for a moment,” C told them. They all crowded close to the bag again to try and see the square better.

“What is it?” S asked.

“It looks like a bug,” M said.

“This little thing took down the whole ship?” T squinted at it.

“I think so,” C stuffed the bag in a pocket of her pants, “The good news is, it seems to only have had time to affect the main computer system so we shouldn’t have to worry about the oxygen or outer doors at all. I’ll have to examine it to see what it actually did, which means I need to get back up to the library.”

“But the computer’s not working in the library,” M tilted her head to the side.

“No, I know,” C said, as she climbed back up through the grate, “I also have a little work station in there that I use if a watch breaks or something.” C held out her hand and helped pull S up after her.

“T or I should go with you,” S suggested as she climbed up.

“Well slight problem right now,” T nodded to the door that was still barred off.

“Oh right,” S sighed, “How do we get through there?” T gripped the bars covering the door and lifted, attempting to slide them back up. They didn’t move.

“Hold on,” M said and then walked over to a bag near the engine and dug through it. “Here.” Through the trapdoor she threw up an item that looked like a small gun. T caught it and raised her eyebrows. 

“I have one of these,” she said sarcastically. M rolled her eyes.

“It’s not a gun, you use it to cut metal. Also,” she also threw up a face mask and gloves, “You’ll need those too.” T’s eyes lit up.

“Oh fun!” 

M chuckled, “Just put the mask and gloves on, hit the button on the side, and go slow. Also make sure you hold it with both hands. You may heal quickly, but I’m not so sure you can regrow limbs. And uh, you two may want to get back.”

“Yes m’am,” T grinned, as she put the mask on. C and S backed away to the opposite side of the room. T planted her feet in front of the bars and held the gun up. As they all watched, T hit the button on the side. A laser appeared in the front and cut straight through a bar on the metal grate. She turned it off quickly.

“Oh. That cut through faster than I expected,” T’s shocked and muffled voice came from behind the mask. M chuckled again.

“Yeah it’s a handy little tool. Just be careful. You think you’re good?” 

“Oh I am definitely good,” T said and M could hear a smile in her voice. T spread her stance a little farther apart and turned the gun back on. She carefully worked her way around the outer frame of the door, cutting through the metal bars. Once she finished the full arc, she turned the gun off and pulled the mask off her head, setting them to the side. S ran over to help. They both gripped the bars of the grid, and pulled back. The metal came loose with a squeal and crashed to the floor. It remained upright, but the weight threatened to fall back, crushing them both. C gave a small scream from the other side of the room.

“Oh shit,” T whispered steadying herself and the grid, “K, again, 1, 2, 3.” They lifted the grid again and moved to the side of the door, leaning it against the wall. “Yeah!” T shouted in excitement and held her hand up to S who grinned and returned a high five.

“All right, C, let’s go,” S instructed. She turned back to T, “What are you going to do?”

“I want to stay down here and guard the hangar,” T, “Someone shut us down for a reason. It can't just be to give us some exercise climbing that ladder and if they want to, this is where they’d get in here. Since our alarm system is down, I’ll take over.”

“That’s smart. Okay, I’ll go with C. M, you're still going to work on the engine?” S delegated.

“Yup, I’ve got it!” M called up, rolling out from under the engine again, “Whatever else that little bug did to the system, some of it seems to be physical. I’m seeing some fried wires. I can start fixing those.”

“All right, fantastic! Game plans for everyone. Do you think the comms will work?” S asked C.

“I don't know why they didn’t before, the device may have been broadcasting interference, but maybe not, so let’s assume they won’t again. We should meet back down here in a hour, whether I’ve figured anything out yet or not,” C suggested. Everyone nodded. C and S went through the now open door and T watched as they disappeared into the wall panel next to the lift.

~

“Art seems a lot taller when you have to climb up each level,” C said as they pulled themselves onto the library level. Breathing heavy, both women leaned back against the wall. S just nodded in agreement as she tried to catch her breath.

“What-” S took a deep breath, “do you need-” another deep breath, “to do?” 

“Take it apart,” C shrugged gesturing to her pocket that held the little machine, “Check its programming, see what it was meant to do. Maybe if I’m lucky find out where it came from.”

“Great,” S stood back up. C led the way through the empty, shattered doors, into the library. S could barely see anything, but she knew C, with her natural night vision, wouldn’t have that problem.

“This feels so weird,” C sighed as she looked up to the empty, dead screen. S held onto C’s elbow as she led them around the room. It wasn’t until they were upon it that S saw a the outline large counter fixed ten feet off the ground to the circular wall housing the lift at the center of the room. She’d only seen C work on it once. S had fallen into a lake once on a job and her watch had seemed done for until C got it on this counter and somehow made it function again, even better than before.

“Could you give me a boost please?” C asked. S bent down on one knee and weaved her fingers together to make a rest for C’s foot. C steadied herself on S’s shoulder before resting her foot in S’s hands and pushing off the ground. S stood up and C was just able to reach the edge of the counter, pulling herself onto it. S sat on the floor underneath, keeping watch she told herself, at least as best as she could in the dark.

“Fantastic, thank you,” C said and took the plastic bag holding the still dormant square out of her pocket. Turning the bag upside down, it fell out onto the counter. C grabbed some tools and delicately pried the metal apart. When it opened, she saw the intricate layout of an advanced computer chip. She grabbed an old fashioned handheld tablet that she kept for tests of hacking programs. First, checking the tablet’s safeguards to make sure it too wouldn’t shut down, she plugged the square into the tablet.

“Well it’s kind of as I expected,” C told S, “It was meant to come in and damage parts of the engine, which M found. Oh, it was meant to attack the air supply, but since we keep that separate it had to go with a different plan.”

“Anything on there about what happened with the computers? Or how to fix it?” S asked.

“Hold on, I’m getting there,” C said. S could hear her fingers tapping on the tablet, “There’s nothing about shutting down computer systems, and oh- oh no.”

“What is it?” S stood on tiptoe, trying to see C.

“The plan B involved Art himself. That’s why the engine is still on. If that goes off we don’t have Art and are dead in the water, but instead they installed a virus in him. That’s why it seemed like the lift attacked T and I, because it actually did. Plus the virus has caused Art to broadcast a signal that blocks us from trying to communicate with any other device. That’s why I couldn’t connect my watch to Art and why the comms wouldn’t work.”

“Art’s trying to kill us and keeping us from calling for help?” S looked around the room as though she would see a physical manifestation of Art standing behind her.

“Yeah, he’s been reprogrammed from helping us, to hurting us. He’s the one that shut all the computers down. We need to go, we need to go warn M and T. M’s working on the engine, he could electrocute her or something.” C jumped down from the counter. She and S hurried to the door, but found a small robot blocking the way out.

“It’s one of the cleaning bots,” S observed.

“It’s being controlled by Art though; it could attack us,” C warned her and grabbed her arm in an attempt to pull her back.

“How is a cleaning bot supposed to attack us?” S asked. As though answering her question, the bot sprayed its cleaning solution at them. C screamed as it hit her face. Her eyes started to burn and she shut them instinctively. S managed to cover face in time and ran headlong to the bot. She kicked it to the side and she watched as it flew a few feet into the library. It landed on its side with a crash. The little wheels on the bottom spun frantically as it tried to right itself.

“Come on,” S grabbed C and rushed her through the door back toward the ladder. “Are you all right?!”

“I can’t open my eyes,” C cried.

“Come on, one level down is the med lab. I can look at your eyes,” S grabbed her arm again to pull her onto the ladder.

“There are bots in the med lab too,” C planted her feet.

“There are bots all over this ship, C,” S pointed out, “We’ll deal with it. Right now we need to get you to an eyewash.” She again pulled C to the ladder and this time C let her. S helped C find the ladder blindly and then climbed on after her. It was slow work trying to get down to the next level, but S finally kicked open the wall panel. She looked around to make sure there weren’t any bots waiting for them and stepped onto the level before helping C climb on after her.

S rushed C past the hospital beds into to a sink inside her lab. There were two plastic pieces on top of the spout that forced the water up. S turned the sink on and bent C over it. C’s relaxed a bit as the cool water relieved some of the burning from the chemical.

“Better?” S asked, rubbing C’s back.

“Yeah,” C said dully, with an air of relief. S sighed and looked back around her lab. Through the glass wall, she could see the actual laboratory, where she could perform experiments, diagnose illnesses, or any of her other projects she worked on. She scanned the space for any sign of her med bots, but nothing moved. She knew it wouldn’t be that way for long. If Art could get a cleaning bot to the door of the library which rarely needed cleaning then they were sitting ducks in the med lab.

If the lab was their hospital, bots were the hospital’s staff. They could run tests while she was away and help care for and monitor patients. What worried her the most were the bots that wielded needles and lasers that perform surgeries. Most of the time they were helpful, in this situation, they became weapons.

“How are you feeling?” S looked down at C, “We need to get back to T and M. They have those hangar bots they could be dealing with.”

“Much better, yeah,” C nodded. She pulled her head away from the water and S turned off the sink. “I still can’t really see, but it hurts less now.”

“Good, here,” S handed her a towel and C dried her face off. “I have some eye drops that will heal you and tet’s get out of here before my bots show up.”

“Ah, don’t say that you’ll jinx us,” C joked and gave a weak laugh.

“Not funny,” S responded solemnly and walked her over to a cabinet in the lab. As they reached it, C grabbed S and yelled. S turned back to see her friend bleeding out of a deep cut on her hip. She looked past C and saw a bot hovering underneath behind one of the counters. It charged toward them, shooting more laser beams.

“Come on!” S pulled C out of the lab, over to the ladder. As quickly as she could, S helped C blindly climb on. It wasn’t fast enough as the bot took the chance to continue its attack. By the time C had a foothold on the ladder, slivers of blood stained the shirt on C’s back and S could see the lines of neatly torn skin on her neck. S had her own wounds peppered over her cheeks and arms.

“Start climbing down!” She yelled, as soon as C was secure on the ladder. C descended slowly as S ran over to a bed, bent over with her arms over her head as protection. She grabbed a metal rod that she used to hang bags of IV drips on and swung at the bot. The rod connected with a crunch, slamming the bot into a wall. Without looking back to see if anymore were coming after her S ran to the ladder and jumped on. She pulled the panel closed, slamming behind them and hurried to catch up with C.

“Are you hurt?” C called up.

“Yes, but just keep going,” S replied.

~

“I’m bored,” T groaned, elongating the word in her frustration. She was sitting with her back against the wall, keeping watch.

“That’s nice. I’m a little busy,” M called up from replacing wires under the engine.

“It’s been almost an hour. They should be back soon. Though if they’re not and something bad happened then I can rescue them. Something to do at least,” T sighed.

“It’s probably not a good thing to hope your friends are in danger so you can have something to do,” M advised.

“It’s not like I actually hope they’re in danger. I’m just saying it would be something to do. Come on, I’m not that terrible,” T elaborated, “Why are you judging me anyway, shouldn’t you be fixing this?” 

“Why are you acting like this?” M rolled out from under the engine and stood up to look at T through the grate.

“Like what?” T asked.

“Just snappy and rude. It’s like when I first joined Prism. You were great for a few weeks after the thing with Nat and now you’ve, like, reverted,” M crossed her arms and frowned up at T.  
“I’m- I mean- I’m just nervous. My job is to fight, basically. But I can’t fight anything right now and I just restless. I would feel less anxious if I was distracted and I could do something to help. Now we’re just waiting to hear if anything else’s gone wrong and that’s just worse,” T explained herself in a rush as though once she finally revealed what’s wrong she couldn’t stop. M stood motionless for a moment & finally pulled herself up through trapdoor in the grate. She sat down next T close enough so their arms are touching.

“Is this, like,” T gestured to the two of them sitting so closely, “Is this going to be an attempt to make me feel better?”

“Maybe,” M said.

“Don’t do that. Don’t try and make me feel better, it just makes me feel worse,” T told her moving to scoot away.

“I know what I’m doing,” M said.

“What?” T asked.

“You said you don’t know what you’re doing with this, but I do. C does, we may not know exactly what’s going on right now, but we know the steps we need to take to fix it. So if you need something to do then just trust us; trust me, okay?” M told her. T stared at the floor for a moment. She didn’t want to meet M’s eye. Finally she sighed.

“Okay. Yeah I’ll try.”

“And stop being such a pain?” M asked. T laughed.

“Yes I will keep the snarky comments to myself.”

“Fantastic,” M clapped T on the shoulder and stood up. “Now I am going to go back under there. Do you think you can last a few more minutes being bored?”

“Now look at who’s being snarky,” T laughed and stood up as well. “Fine, I’ll go patrol the hangar, I guess. Who would have thought I would actually have to patrol? It was just supposed to be a joke to piss S off.”

As M climbed back down the trapdoor, T hopped down the stairs into the hangar. She didn’t really feel like patrolling, but at least it was something to get her moving around. She walked around the The Tube and Art Two several times and as expected, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She sighed as she turned around to walk around the smaller crafts again when she heard a scream from the engine room.

“M!” T yelled and ran in the direction of the stairs, but was stopped by something grabbing her ankle. She slammed into the floor, her outstretched arms doing little more than taking the brunt of the impact. She whipped around to see one of the extendable arms of a hangar bot wrapped around her ankle.

“Art! Call it off!” she ordered and kicked at the arm with her free foot. The bot sent out another arm after it, but instead, she kicked at the body. It had little effect besides causing it to roll back a few inches. In retaliation it spit out a steel rod that smashed into her nose before yo-yoing back inside the bot. T could feel blood running down her face from her nose which she could only assume was broken. She resorted to her last option and pulled out her gun. She aimed and shot the bot in what she guessed would be the head. It finally powered down and the arm around her ankle loosened.

T scrambled to her feet and rushed up the stairs into the engine room. She could see M lying against a wall unconscious and another bot underneath the engine ripping wires out. She jumped through the trapdoor and kicked the bot. Caught unaware, it slid back several feet out from under the engine. T fell onto her stomach and aimed the gun. The bot was barely damaged from smashing into the wall and turning back toward her when she shot it. It made a dying whirring noise as it stopped moving and the lights on its body faded to black.

T rushed over to M and knelt down next to her. Medical may be S’s territory, but T had seen enough battlefield wounds to patch beings up quickly. She at least wasn’t bleeding so T carefully lifted her head and gently ran her fingers over it feeling for any kind of head wound. As she reached the back of M’s head, she found what she was looking for, a large bump right on the crown of her skull. T continued to cradle M’s head as she gently shook one of her shoulders.

“M? Can you hear me? Come on wake up.” Her nose wasn’t hurting yet, but it still felt weird when she spoke. She automatically looked up at the ceiling, “Art, can I get some wa- oh… shit!” T carefully laid M back on the floor and stood as much as she could under the grate, pacing and thinking, mumbling to herself, “Can’t get any water because Art isn’t working and the only water is up underneath the common area, shit, shit, shit.”

“What are you mumbling?” T heard a voice say. She whipped her head around and saw M opening her eyes, hand feeling for the bump on the back of her head.

“You’re awake!” T practically ran back to M’s side and sank down to the floor.

“Yeah, oh wow, your face,” M said finally seeing T’s broken nose. She put her hand up as though to touch T cheek, but then seemed to think better of it and pulled back. “Does it hurt?”

“Nah, not yet, I’ll be fine. What happened?” T asked once again reaching out and examining the bump in the back of M’s head.

“I don’t really know,” M told her, “I was working on the engine and then something pulled me out by the ankle and threw me against the wall. After that I guess I passed out.” She tried to stand, but T put a hand on her shoulder.

“No, no, you don’t get to move until S has officially checked you out,” T said, “It’s the bots; one attacked me too. Speaking of S, I bet they also met up with some. I hope they’re okay.”

“So Art’s attacking us now?” M asked, leaning back against the floor, looking under the engine to see the disabled bot on the other side. “Did you have to shoot it? That’s going to be nearly impossible to repair.”

“Well considering they were attacking us, yeah, I think shooting was a good idea” T told her. She stood again to keep pacing. She even began clenching and unclenching her fists.

“What are you doing?” M asked.

“Huh? Oh, trying to keep my heart rate & adrenaline up so I won’t actually the pain in my nose Plus it will heal faster. And, also be happy I shot it cause it was ripping wires out of the engine.”

“Oh no,” M groaned. She leaned her head back for a moment, thinking, “Smart. Use a computer virus to get the ship to attack its inhabitants. Like a body attacks a biological virus.”

“Great, so the thing that is trying to kill us is also the thing that keeps us from being sucked out into space.”

“At least it didn’t get to the system that controls the outer doors so we can’t actually be sucked out into space,” M reminded T as pushed herself off the floor.

“Hey, hey what are you doing? What did I say about not moving?” T pointed at her.

“I need to keep trying to fix this. If they bots overrun us then there’s a possibility they could start destroying that system. If they take out enough of it, it’ll go down,” M responded and started to pull herself under the engine again. They heard a clattering by the wall and T peeked her head through the trapdoor, gun at the ready. They saw S and C almost falling through the door to the hangar. M and T climbed through the grate and the team took in each other's injuries except for C, who still couldn’t see. 

“Well we all look great, who’s up for going out?” T said sarcastically as she put away her gun.

“You were attacked too?” S asked them ignoring T.

“What? How can you tell?” C asked, blinking blearily.

“What happened to your eyes?” M asked C.

“What happened to your face?” S asked T.

“I’m fine. Can you take look at M please?” T asked S, “She got slammed into a wall & knocked unconscious.” S turned to M and began examining her head. T bent down to look at C’s eyes which at the moment were puffy and foggy.

“What happened to you?” T asked her. C nonchalantly waved her hand.

“I should be fine, just not at the moment. Listen, that bug infected us with a virus. Art has completely shut us out and is attacking us.”

“Yeah, we figured that one out,” T told her. She stood back up and started hopping from foot to foot.

“Trying to keep your heart rate up?” S asked.

“Not in the mood for a broken nose,” T said.

“You have a broken nose?” C exclaimed looking around blindly. 

M sighed, “This is turning into a bad comedy show. Listen, I need to fix the ship.”

“No, we need to get someplace enclosed where bots can’t get to us,” T suggested. 

“Okay, but also if I fix the ship, the bots won’t attack us,” M countered.

“You can’t just fix it by yourself under the engine. We need a plan,” T pointed out.

“Where can we go?” S asked, “This ship is crawling with bots. We’ll be attacked wherever we go.” She finished examining M, “You should be fine by the way. Just don’t do anything too active and don’t sleep for awhile.”

M nodded slowly rubbing her head and suggested, “Could we go to the gym? It’s wide open. We’ll see something coming.”

“Let’s not go to the place that has bots built for fighting,” T said pointedly, “The ones that are supposed to be helpful have already done enough damage.” M looked confused so T, still bouncing, explained further, “The gym has sparring bots and I don’t think you need another hit in the head.”

“Ah, yeah no, bad idea,” M said.

“Art Two,” C said.

“Yes!” M and S said excitedly.

“What?” T asked.

C waved a hand in T’s general direction, “Art Two isn’t completely connected to Art, at least the door isn’t, so he couldn’t open that automatically to attack us. It is mostly manually controlled and doesn’t have bots.”

“Best shot we’ve got for now,” M added.

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll lead,” T said gesturing to the door.

“Uh, literally please?” C reached out for someone.

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” S said and grabbed C’s arm to help her stand. 

“Wait! M jumped back down to the engine room floor, grabbed a knife out of her tool bag and climbed back up, “Just in case.”

“Smart,” T nodded and pulled her gun out before peering around the open door to the hangar.

“Doesn’t look like anything’s moving,” she whispered. With T leading the way, team made their way down the stairs. At the base of the stairs T looked around once more before standing back and gesturing for let her three friends pass her. 

M lead the way now as T followed the group scanning the hangar. She could practically feel her heart in her throat and her nose didn’t hurt at all now. It wasn’t a very long walk, but they were all on edge and C couldn’t move quickly, so it felt much longer. M pulled the door to Art Two open and S helped C climb inside. M followed, and finally with one more scan of the room T jumped up and shut the door behind her.

M sat down in the pilot’s seat like she normally would while C and S had taken seats in the back. T joined M in the front seats and stared out the front window.

“You work on the computer stuff, I’ll keep watch,” she told M. She nodded and stood to go work with C, but before she left, she put her hand on T’s shoulder.

“You’ve got an action plan now. You feel better?” M smiled. T gave a small smile back.

“A little,” she responded.

“Hold on,” S said, pulling out the little first aid kit they kept in the shuttle. She walked over to C and opened it. “Open wide, tilt your head back. This will feel weird.” C did as instructed and S pulled out a little medical gun. She held it up to C’s eyes and pulled the trigger, a fine mist sprayed out from the front. She held it over each of C’s eyes for a moment. “How does that feel?”

“So much better,” C sighed, closing her eyes. 

“You should be able see in a few minutes.” S also sprayed the cuts on C’s arms and back. She handed M a little pill, telling her it will have the same affect for her head. S joined T up front and sat in the pilot’s seat. “If we actually do get sucked into space it would probably be a good idea to have someone ready to fly,” S gave T a small smile and T nodded in agreement, “Also grabbed one of these.” S held up a gun she much had grabbed from the small weapons cache in the back.

“Good plan,” T tilted her head in a quick nod. They all sat in relative silence and as soon as she could see C and M began working off their holo-screens. At least, as much as they could without access to Art. They sat, heads together in the back discussing what would be the best next move. T could barely understand what they were saying so she tuned them out. Her nose was really starting to hurt now. S filled the time with spaying T’s nose, “It’s a break though, it won’t heal so quickly.”

“I know, thanks,” T smiled. 

S pulled out some antibacterial wipes, “Also, clean off the blood. You’re a little frightening.” T grinned as much as she could without hurting and took them. She pulled up the camera on her holo-screen and rivulets of blue blood had dried all the way down her chin and onto her shirt. S set to work spraying her own cuts from the bot’s lasers.

“I think I’ve figured it out,” C said after an hour. S turned around in her seat, but T kept her eyes on the hangar and leaned her head to the side to show she was listening. “Art has blocked us from accessing any of our communications from the inside. We can’t reach Art, and we can’t reach anyone on the outside, from inside the ship,” C explained. 

“Okay,” S said warily, “Can we fix it?” 

“I think I can, yes,” C continued, “I just need to get outside the ship.” 

“And how are you going to do that?” T asked, with her eyes still looking out the front window.

“Selperm,” C said simply. This finally made T turn around, wide eyed.

“More words,” T prompted, looking unsettled. M took over the explanation, “We are going to go up to the cell block and C will go into one of the airlocks with a selperm belt and I’ll open the outside door.” 

C nodded, “The selperm will automatically form as always and I should be able to hack into Art once I’m off the ship.”

“Should be able to?” S emphasized.

“Are you absurd?” T exclaimed. Both T’s and S’s faces had matching shocked expressions.

“Yes, should,” C confirmed calmly.

“How do you even plan to get the airlock doors open?” T snapped rapidly.

“I’ll play with some wiring in the door control panel,” M said.

“That sounds safe,” T jabbed.

“And if it doesn’t work how do you plan on getting back in the ship? How do you know the selperm belt will respond to commands.” S asked.

“Since the watches work the selperm belts should too, they aren’t controlled by Art. If they don’t, that’s why I’ll be there,” M said, “I’ll be just inside the main doors with a tether on the selperm.”

“There’s that word again. Should,” T snapped.

“Is there anything you could do to make this plan more solid?” S asked. C and M looked at each other for a moment before C turned back to S.

“Once I get out there I could send a distress signal. The problem is whoever set this up could be out there waiting for us,” C said. Everyone was quiet for a moment, mulling this option over.

“How long will it take to get the ship back?” T asked. C sighed and shrugged.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if I can get through to him.”

“You can go out there, access the situation,” S told her, “If you can’t get through, you send that distress signal. Come back in here immediately and we make a new plan.”

“I can do that,” C said. 

“And M needs an anchor,” T suggested, “You need a selperm belt on and an anchor to the ship. A physical one that Art couldn’t mess with. In fact it would probably be a good idea for us all to get selperm belts on.” The other women nodded in agreement.

“M, what do you need?” T asked.

“The belts, a rope, and my tool bag,” M nodded in the direction of the engine room.

“We’ll all go up to the cell level,” T had slipped seamlessly into her tactical mode, “First we need to get out of here and grab the belts quickly. Then we’ll make our way to that ladder. C, how are your eyes?”

“I can see,” C told her.

“Good, we don’t have time for injuries. If anyone gets hurt, you keep moving, if you can’t move… well, hope he’ll focus on the ones that are still moving, and we’ll reassess when we can.”

“Do you think we need another gun?” S asked.

“No, you have one,” T continued, “C will hopefully be out of the ship soon and M-”

“I know, I can’t shoot, you don’t have to say it,” M interrupted curtly. 

T paused before continuing, “I was going to say your focus should be on C.”

“Oh. I agree,” M said quietly.

“S and I will keep guard, keep any bots away. Once he realizes what you’re doing, we’re probably in for a fight,” T finished.

“I never thought I would regret living on a ship that does everything for us,” C said. S and M chuckled softly. T grinned and she realized her nose hurt less, all the planning had boosted her stress levels.

“All right, let’s do this. I’ll go first, C next, then M, S guard the rear,” T ordered with a last look out the front window while the women lined up in their order by the door. T threw it open and sprinted to the wall where the selperm belts were kept. A bot flew down in front of her, but she shot it down. Once each of the women had grabbed a belt, and C grabbed a length of heavy rope they kept in the hangar, throwing it over her shoulder. They raced over to the engine room stairs, but a bot sat halfway up them. It swiveled to face them with a blowtorch device protruding from its side.

“Really a blow torch?” T asked bitterly, raising her gun.

“The engine room is too close,” M advised, “Don’t shoot. If you hit the fire, it could explode.” S shot at a bot that appeared behind them. 

“We need to move!” she called.

T charged forward and the bot rolled toward her. She paused and faked lunging to her left. The bot followed her movement and in the second before it turned back she kicked it. The bot slammed against the wall of the lift and rolled back off the edge of the stairs. It fell to its side of the floor and before it could right itself, T jumped down on top of it, causing to break apart.  
“Nice!” C exclaimed, but there wasn’t time for much else as T jumped back onto the stairs.

“Stay here!” She dashed to the engine room. T grabbed the frame of the engine room door and swung around the door to keep her momentum, jumping down the trapdoor. Barely breaking stride on her landing, she grabbed M’s tool bag off the ground and threw it up to the grate. Pulling herself back up, she grabbed the back and rushed back out handing the bag to its owner and turning the ladder panel S held open.

“What is in there? It weighs a ton!” T complained.

“I’ll show you sometime,” M half-joked. T ascended the ladder first with the others behind her. As they passed the gym level, they heard banging on the wall panel.

“Yeah I don’t want to see what’s doing that,” C wise-cracked nervously.

“Agreed,” whispered S as they kept climbing. When they reached the medical level a laser shot through the wall barely missing T’s head.

“Oh fantastic, hold on,” T muttered. The group stopped and watched as T pulled her feet up a few rungs so she was above the door and compressed her body into a tight ball. Reaching down she lightly tapped the panel. Again, a laser shot through the wall into empty space and T pushed hard on the wall panel. It swung open and they heard it hit the bot. A few seconds later they heard the unmistakable crashing sound of a small bot breaking against a wall. T reached out and hurriedly closed the wall panel again.

“That was really impressive,” M awed.

“Thank you,” T grinned down at her. C rolled her eyes, but smiled up at T from behind M.

~~~~~

“Can we continue please?” S called up. T changed her grin into a smirk and rolled her eyes in turn, but continued up the ladder. At long last they reached the cell level. T poked the wall panel and nothing behind it stirred.

“There isn’t really a lot of bots on this level. Only cleaning ones right?”

“Only,” C scoffed.

“Yes,” S answered at the same time. T opened the panel wider and climbed onto the level. The two cells stood silently side by side in the room. Everything seemed still. Unlike all the other levels on Art, this one did not wrap all the way around the ship. Walls extended diagonally one either side of the lift area cutting off the rest of the level. The two cells with their airlock doors sat snug next to each other along the outer wall of the ship. The room shape resembled a slice of pie, but with the lift running down the center, cutting out the center point.

“All right, come on,” T told the others and one by one they emerged from the wall. M immediately dropped her bag by a control panel on the left wall that was labeled Left Airlock Controls. From her bag she pulled a small drill and began unscrewing the screws in the corners of the wall panel.

“I need your selperm belt,” she told C over her shoulder. C nervously glanced at the airlock before setting on M’s bag and then stood very close to T.

“Don’t worry, I got you, buddy,” T told her and wrapped her arm around C’s shoulders.

“May I have the rope please?” M asked T, who handed it to her. M knelt and tied a complicated, tight knot around the belt.

“Nice knot,” T admired.

“We used to rock climb a lot at home,” M told her.

“Ah so that’s where the sliding down the ladder came from, rappelling down rock faces?” T asked. M stood back up and grinned mischievously.

“No. I learned to do that so I could impress being.”

“You’ve achieved that,” T laughed.

“Can you not flirt, we’re trying not to die,” S grumbled.

“We’re not flirting,” both M and T said at the same time, but, with smiles still plastered across their faces, they stopped their discussion.

“Ready?” M asked. C nodded and took the belt from her reattaching it around her waist. M began pulling the rope activating it’s extendable feature and soon it was double the size of what T had pulled off the wall.

“You think that will get you out far enough?” M asked C.

“Let’s hope so,” C sighed. M nodded and tied the rope around her own waist. Grabbing the other end with both hands, instead of pulling to make it longer, she pushed it together so it wouldn’t lengthen if she got sucked out into space. Then handed the other end to T.

“Could you tie this to the ladder please?” she asked. T silently took the rope and did as M asked. When she closed the wall panel the rope flattened so the panel fit back in seamlessly. M walked over to her bag and pulled out some pliers.

“All right, C you’re up, stand by the door, it may only open for a second,” M said, “S could you give her your comm please? If C can get through then those will work again. S pulled the small device from her ear and put it in C’s outstretched hand. C inserted it into her ear and then lifted up her length of rope. She opened walled through the open bars of the cell and stood right where the crease ran down the middle of the airlock door. From the open control panel, M pulled out a long cord of many wires bundled together. After a moment of looking through them she picked out a blue one and ran her hand along it. She seemed to find the right spot because she fit it in between the pliers and squeezed. The airlock doors sprang open and C shot through just in time because just as quickly the doors slammed shut.

“Whoa,” T let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding in. She looked over to S and saw that her gun was still trained on the lift door and wall panel, but her worried, pink eyes were fixed on C.

“We should probably… keep guard...” T said absentmindedly and pointed at the wall panel. S nodded and they both moved closer to it, but neither of them really focused on it. M was picking through wires again and this time she pulled out a yellow one.

“Make or break moment. Are you belts set?” M asked.

“Wait!” S said sharply. M jumped and T whipped her head around. S walked over to the cell door and slid it shut.

“In case the doors do open,” S said.

“You practically gave me a heart attack,” M whispered.

“Sorry,” S gave her a sheepish smile as she returned to her guard post, “We’re ready.” They could see C through a small window set in the door. She waved and smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. M took a deep breath and squeezed the wire with the pliers.

The wall of the ship behind the airlock door snapped open and pulled C through. Almost just as quickly, a blue bubble burst from the belt and surrounded C completely. The whole team breathed audible sighs as the door slammed shut again and C disappeared.

~

C’s heart jumped as the outer door opened and she felt her body being pulled backwards. She had faced the inside of the ship and her friends, because she didn’t think she could handle seeing the empty blackness she was about the enter with no guarantee that her selperm would work. She was almost positive it would, but there was still a little voice in the back of her head telling her that something could go wrong. 

She knew it was right. Almost everything had gone wrong that day. When the ship first shut down she was floating in midair in the library. The lights went out and she crashed to the floor. Luckily she wasn’t very high up. Then it had taken almost half an hour for T to come get her. When you added in the bug from YERN and the attacking bots, she expected the selperm to join in.  
Computers had always been so easy for her, it almost felt like they liked her, Like they were letting her in. Now they were all attacking her; it was hard not to feel like it was personal.  
For half a second she watched her friends’ faces and thought she was going to die and then the blue tinged material of a fully formed selperm appeared in between her and the rest of the team and she breathed a sigh of relief. The outer door slammed shut and she was by herself out in the void of space with those three women counting on her. She activated her holo-screen and set to work.

~

“Ow!” S cried out. T and M whirled around to see a flying bot hovering by the wall panel. They had all been so distracted, the noise the panel being pushed open had been missed. It took the chance to shoot S with a laser and a cut bloomed on her cheekbone. T quickly shot it down.

“Any of the others fly?” M asked.

“I honestly have no idea,” T said. She began slowly moving around the room rotating every few feet. Her eyes scanned every inch of it from the ceiling to the corners as she trained her gun across the room. She suddenly shot at something in a corner.

“What? What was it?” S asked.

“The camera,” T said, “I just realized, Art has voice activation. He probably heard us and what we plan to do.”

“You’re right. I should have realized,” S said and her eyes grew wide, “I’m so used to asking Art for things I rarely think about how he can hear us when we’re not talking to him.”

“So what does that mean?” M asked warily.

“It means you stay put,” T told her, “And make sure nothing happens to C. We got this.” At these words there was a whirring sound and they all turned toward it.

“It’s the lift,” S whispered. All three of them stared at the door.

“Do you think C…?” T trailed off.

“No you would have heard her on the comms,” M said. S and T naturally fell into formation, side by side, ten feet away from the door, guns aimed. M followed suit and they all waited in silence for the lift. The noise stopped and the little light above the door illuminated with an accompanying ping, but the door didn’t open. The only sounds now were the women breathing. Time seemed to slow down.

The door snapped open with a bang, S and T tensed , but nothing moved. They peered back into the round edges of the lift and couldn’t see anything. T slyly walked forward, her feet barely making a sound. She craned her head around the corner into the lift and looked it up and down, but couldn’t see anything. She shot the trapdoor in the ceiling, but there wasn’t anything behind it.

“Was there something there?” S whispered. T silently shook her and and looked over to M and S confused. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move. T whipped her head toward it in time to see a tiny bot scuttling across the floor inside the cell. The airlock doors shot open and it skittered through before they slammed behind it. T raced over to the cell door and tried to pull it open, but Art must have locked it.

“What is it doing? Where is it going?” S yelled over T’s cursing. M had practically thrown herself back to the door control wires and was digging for the right one again. She pulled the blue one out and squeezed the same spot with the pliers. The doors whooshed open again and they could see the little bot aiming a laser at the rope and cutting through.

“No!” T yelled and shot the lock on the cell in her panic. She forgot the cell has electrical pulse barriers guarding it and her plasma blast rebounded off of it and clipped her on the shoulder. The shock of it made her fall back, crying out in surprise, gripping her shoulder.

“Are you all right?” S asked quickly helping her up. The shoulder of T’s shirt was dark with blue blood, but in the moment she couldn’t feel it, so she didn’t care. Instead of answering, T turned to at M.

“Get it down! Can you get it down?” As soon as she asked, M ripped a red wire out of the wall. What felt like a small bomb detonating filled the room and they were all knocked off their feet as the barrier collapsed. T looked up from the ground to see S shoot the lock on the cell and this time the door sprang open.

T scrambled to her feet and rushed for the bot whose tiny laser had almost cut all the way through the rope. She stepped on it and crushed while grabbing the length of rope hanging from the outer door and the few tendrils of rope snapped apart. Hurriedly she bent down to pick up the end that led inside. As soon as she picked it up the airlock door slammed shut. T was locked inside the airlock with each hand holding a piece of rope, one end that kept her friend from floating away into space and the other that kept herself from floating away. She looked back through the window to see S and M’s shocked faces. M recovered first and pulled out the blue wire again. She squeezed it, but the door didn’t open. She squeezed it again… nothing. T grew panicked.

“It’s only an inside door,” she thought to herself, “He still doesn’t have control of the outer ones.” At least hopefully he didn’t. The blue space bubble of death, that’s what she called the selperm. If he got control of the outer door then any second now, Art could open it and she would be stuck in it, still holding the ends of the rope. She tried to take a deep breath as she looked through the window again to see M with her head in the wall digging through wires. S was distracted by the lift. Three bots had flown down through the trapdoor and were attempting to shoot her with lasers again. S shot one down and was attempting to aim at another while keeping both in her sights. T felt trapped. She couldn’t help S, she couldn’t get the door open and she couldn’t let go of either rope.

“Knock, knock,” said a voice in T’s ear and she almost jumped out of her skin.

“Anybody home?” said the voice again. Through her heavy breathing and trying to get her heart rate back down T laughed. It was C. T transferred both pieces of rope to one hand and with the other pressed her comm. 

“I hate you,” she joked, “You scared me half to death.”

“Sorry about that,” C said. T could tell by her tone that C was grinning and very pleased with herself.

“I’m guessing you got through,” T said.

“Still working on parts of it, but yeah, big time,” C said in a singsong voice.

T grinned, “Well could you work on the bots first please? We’ve got a couple attacking M and S.”

“Just them? You decide to let them have all the glory?” C quipped.

“I’m trapped in the airlock making sure you don’t float away,” T chided.

“Oh, hold on,” C responded crisply. T looked back through the window and saw S with a few more cuts than before and two broken pieces of defeated bots were laying on the floor. S was training her gun on the last one. It was darting around the room too quickly for her to track through not for lack of trying as she whirled left and right. A moment later the bot dropped to the floor as though it shut down mid-flight.

“Better?” she heard in her ear.

“Much, thank you,” T answered. She saw M finally emerge from the wall and grab a pair of wire cutters and dive back in.

“I’ll get you out of the airlock, one minute,” C said, but not a second later the doors popped open.

“Oh thank you,” T breathed in relief. She pulled over more of the rope from inside the ship over and tied both ends together before quickly shuffling back into the ship proper.

“What? I didn’t do anything yet,” C said, “Did the doors open?”

“You’re welcome,” M said as she pulled herself out of the wall, “I’m going to have to replace all this wiring; I’ve wrecked it.” Without saying anything T walked over and hugged her tightly.

“Wow you really don’t like selperms,” M said awkwardly and patted T’s back.

“Nope,” T said and pulled away, “I’ve got C on comms.”

“Really? That’s fantastic!” M exclaimed.

“I figured that would have been her,” S came over and gestured to the fallen bot she hadn’t shot.

“Uh, T,” C said through the comm and T pressed hers again.

“What’s up?”

“You guys need to get up to the common room now. I’ll meet you there. Go go now,” C said quickly.

“Why?” T asked her moving to the wall panel and gesturing at the others to follow her. M looked unsure if she should follow, but T gave her a reassuring nod, so she untied the rope from around her waist, the length of rope coming from the ladder tightened slightly.

“Cause there is a ship heading right for us,” C babbled quickly, “Don’t know who, don’t know why, I can get myself back in and one sec,” her voice disappeared and T pulled the wall panel open quickly. She was ducking the rope and climbing on the ladder when she heard the ping of the lift.

“Got the lift working! Get up there quick, the ship is moving fast,” C said. The three women climb onto the lift. T pressed herself against the rounded wall and clutched the handrail the ran around the inside.

“Scared it will fall?” S smiled at her affectionately.

“Less scared, more along the lines of ‘precaution’ and ‘paranoia’,” T joked sarcastically, but M and S could tell it was half-hearted. The lift began moving upward and M saw T’s knuckles turn white.

The lift made it up to the common room and T clambered off first. S hurried over to the large screen and hit a button on her watch. The screen showed an image from outside the ship and they saw the large gray ship rapidly overtaking Art.

“Who is it?” T asked.

“They have an authority identifier, but it’s weird,” S said.

“What do you mean?” T asked.

“I don’t know. C would be able to figure it out, but not me,” S shrugged.

“Well, comm them,” M suggested. S hit a button on the screen and the rotating circle appeared. It swirled for a minute too long.

“They aren’t going to pick up,” T shook her head, “Can you tell, do they have artillery?” Before S could answer a being with four eyes and a mouth that sat length-wise up the middle of its face appeared. He wore a uniform that identified him as one of The Authority.

“This is Ratik of the Universal Authority. We received a distress signal from this area a few hours ago, is everything all right?” they said. The three team members exchanged looks. C hadn’t said anything about sending out a signal. 

“Who sent it?” asked M.

“You don’t know?” the being asked.

“We’ve been having some communication problems,” M told them, “Could you just confirm who sent out the signal so we can see which one worked?” T gave her a small smile acknowledging M’s cleverness. The being sat for a moment thinking.

“We received it from an automated emergency system,” they said.

“That’s a lie,” M replied bluntly.

“Excuse me?” the being snapped.

“Our AES wouldn’t have sent out a distress signal a few hours ago, it was completely shut down,” M told him.

The being swelled in anger, “You should have more respect, you are speaking to an officer of the Authority-”

“No, she’s not,” a voice said, C appeared from the direction of the lift and stood in front of the screen. She held up her holo-screen triumphantly, “Sorry for interrupting. I’ve been monitoring your whole conversation and I felt like I should jump in. I also happened to dip into your ship’s system as you folks flew up and you definitely aren’t Authority because you wouldn’t have an illegal program encrypting all your identification markers.” T chuckled a little as C continued with her chastising. “In fact your whole system is so heavily encrypted that I have a nasty little feeling that you are one of beings who set up our whole breakdown in the first place. You need a very fancy and skilled hacker for that and I’m very impressed. Though I, too, am a very fancy and skilled hacker, in fact a little bit more than the one you seem to have because I was able to get in and look through your system enough to recognize the signature on it. A good hacker usually can’t help, but sign their work. Especially when it’s as nice and detailed as the stuff you have and I have to say, I didn’t think we were going to be seeing Tyker this soon.”

“Tyker?” T spat.

“Who’s Tyker?” M asked.

“A hacker we were hired to hunt down,” S explained.

“And we did, we arrested him. He got sent away for a very long time,” T said shocked, “How is he involved in this?” A human man with shaggy, dirty brown hair and a pallor face pushed the being off screen and turned to the team.

“I knew you were talented C, but you seemed to have missed your big problem here,” he croaked, “Your ship is dead and we’re the only two ships out here. Prison was not fun. I owe you for sending me there.”

“Oh, we’re not shut down,” C grinned, “I was able to get all our systems back up just before you arrived. I even had some extra time to pull down your encryption and broadcast your location.” C turned back to her friends, “Did you know that Tyker here escaped from prison and is high up on the Authority’s wanted list?”

“Interesting,” S said sarcastically.

“You know I’m a little hurt we weren’t hired to bring him back in,” T said in mock surprise, “Seeing as how we captured him so easily last time.”

“How did you manage to escape?” C asked sweetly as though asking how someone their weekend went.

“I have friends in high places. Any Authority ship is too far away to get here in time to protect you,” Tyker snarled.

“Oh honey, we’re Prism, we don’t need protection,” C chided, “And as I mentioned we’re up and running, so I think we might get out of here and miss the show seeing as how there’s an actual Authority ship about 5 minutes away. So unless you have decided to go back to prison, now might be a good time to run.” Tyker’s angry face disappeared from their screen. The outside camera footage could be seen again and Tyker’s ship quickly pulled itself around and sped off away from Art.

“We’re letting him get away?” T asked angrily.

“Don’t worry,” C waved a hand at her, “I set their autopilot to the nearest Authority base. By the time Tyker is able to fix it they’ll be slapping cuffs on him.” T laughed.

“I can’t believe you were able to do all that and get Art running in that short amount of time,” M said.

“Oh Art’s not running,” C gulped, “That was a huge bluff. Honestly if he had even attempted to hack us before he left he would’ve had complete control over the ship.” The other women stared at C open-mouthed.

“I’m never believing anything you say ever again,” T joked.

“I only use my powers for good,” C giggled.

M shook her head, but was smiling, “Well then, we have work to do.”

~

C hardwired her watch into the engine and it took her less than two hours to get Art responding to commands again. She directed the ship to the nearest repair port. S and T spent two days cleaning up broken bots and glass while M repaired wires and doors. This provoked T into continual complaints.

“I wish we could just hire someone! It would be done so much faster!” She groaned one day as she and S were sweeping up glass in the library.

“You want to bring unfamiliar beings on our ship after what just happened?” S raised her eyebrows. 

“No, I know why we can’t, T said as she gingerly itched her bruised nose, which thanks to her genetics and S’s treatment, had already almost healed, “I just wish we could.” C spent the time building new safeguard programs to make sure nothing foreign could be introduced into Art’s system again without them knowing. She also reprogrammed the bots to function normally and embedded an automatic kill switch to them that Art couldn’t access if they ever needed it. Once the bots were functioning again, the cleaning and repairs went much faster.

After three days, S directed Art to the closest sun so they could recharge their solar energy batteries to rebuild their power stores. Art slowly lifted itself out of the dock and they left the port behind. T climbed the stairs to the engine room hopping over every other step and found M once again laying underneath the engine. 

“Knew I’d find ya here,” she smiled down. 

“Where else?” M muffled voice cheerily called up. T pulled up the trapdoor and jumped down to the floor. 

“What are you doing? I thought you cleared us as good to go?” She asked and sat cross legged on the floor by M’s feet and joked in an overly dramatic voice, “Do we need to stop? Are we going to fall out of the sky? Make a head on collision with the first commercial liner we come across?” She lifted the back of her hand to her head and acted as though she was going to faint from shock.

“Honestly, I get you’re joking, but after this experience, it’s not so funny,” M said, but from what T could see of M’s face, she thought she glimpsed a dry smile. 

“Sorry.” 

“I'm just coating the wires with a steel spray. It will make them harder to cut through. You know, just in case.”

“I love how you guys have added these new heavy duty security devices to the ship to make sure it never happens again, but then add extra stuff ‘just in case’,” she held up two fingers and form the quote hand gesture on her last words, “Gives a real sense of confidence.” M laughed as she worked. 

“Did you come down here to make jokes or did you need something?”

“Both,” T said, “We just heard back from YERN. Apparently the person we were supposed to meet with was found dead about a day after we left.” M rolled out and sat up. 

“Are you serious?” She asked with a look of shock on her face.

“Yup,” T nodded solemnly, “They tried to get ahold of us, but I guess the first thing that little bugger took out was our long distance comms.”

“Who did you meet with then? On YERN’s moon?” M asked.

“Some guy Tyker hired,” T shrugged, “Apparently he’s not giving up a name.” She sighed and suddenly slapped her knee and pushed herself up to stand as much as she could underneath the grate , “Anyway, just wanted to let you know. I’ll let you get back to work.”

“Wait, did you want to see up underneath the engine this time?” M asked.

“Oh right! Yeah sure, I like looking in the face of the thing that try to kill me,” T quipped. M chuckled as she rolled the cart a little to the left, making room. T laid on her back and pushed herself under the engine with her feet. Above her she could see an expanse of shiny chrome and bright blinking lights. The chrome reflected the white lights and made it look like there were twice as many. Different colored wires set into the side ran in wavy lines all throughout.

“You’re right, it is kind of pretty,” T reached out and touched a length of blue wires. “The wires are laid out in a way that makes it look Ongori,” She said, referring to the blue wavy lines on her own arms and legs.

“Oh yeah, I didn’t realize that,” M chuckled again, “here, see, this is what I’m doing.” She took the spray can and sprayed a section of wires. They took on a metallic sheen.

T coughed, “That stuff smells terrible!”

“What? No it doesn’t!” M defended.

“You spend far too much time down here if you think that doesn’t smell bad.” T pointed at the can, but was laughing.

“Maybe you spend too much time in gyms and sweat and your sense of smell is warped,” M grinned at her. They both laughed as they turned to stare back up into the twinkling engine.


	4. Prism Part 4- Resurrected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 4: Resurrected
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

A being ran down a dark street in the dead of night. Breathing heavily, they flung themself around corners and sprinted around street lamps; occasionally glancing over their shoulder, but it was hard to see in the dark. The last they saw, their pursuers were on foot, but that could have easily changed. The street was silent other than their own footsteps. The surrounding buildings were dark, everyone else on the planet asleep.

Trying to increase their speed, their four arms pumped by their side, but there wasn’t much more left to give. Ahead they could see the town square where they would be out in the open. They didn’t like it, but it couldn’t be helped. As long as they got across it quickly, they might make it. With as much speed as they could muster, they burst into the square.

WHAM!

Halfway through, someone slammed into them and knocked them to the ground, and landed on their stomach. They both were caught in a tangle of limbs, and a being with blue hair hopped on their back, pinning their legs, forcing their face into the ground.

“Really? Four arms? That is kind of annoying to try and hold! Just- keep- still!” The being said as she struggled to restrain her captive. From behind, they heard more footsteps from several beings run up to them and slow down.

“Help please? They have four arms and it’s not easy to-” The woman lost control of one of their arms and the being used their chance to smack Blue Hair in the face, cutting her off. Someone ran over and grabbed two of their arms. The new being slipped what looked like a rubber band around them which electrified just as the blue haired being slipped another band around their other set of arms. Officially captured, they stopped struggling and glowered up to get a good look at their other captors. It looked like two women and a being with blue-green skin and silver hair stood over them. The blue haired being who slammed into them climbed off their back and pulled them up to a standing position.

“Well, Martor, you gave us quite a chase and I hate running so I’m not super pleased with you right now.” The blue-haired being said before turning to the others, “I told you my shortcut would work!”

Another of the beings with brown hair said, “You’re Ongori, shouldn’t running easy for you? At least easier than for us.” She gestured at the other woman and being, all three were still breathing heavy from the chase.

“Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean I have to like it,” the Blue Hair whined, and Brown Hair grinned while the other two shook their heads and rolled eyes.

“So The Tube?” asked the woman with dark skin and blonde hair.

“Yeah I’ll get it. It will take a few minutes. Get to a rooftop,” Brown Hair said.

“I’ll go with you,” the being with silver hair nodded to Brown Hair and they left the square.

“Come on,” Blonde Hair pointed, “There’s a fire escape over on that building.”

“And how am I supposed to climb a ladder?” Martor asked in a gruff voice, indicating their bound arms.

“Oh, this one is grumpy,” Blue Hair joked as she turned Martor toward the building. “Don’t worry buddy, we’ve got a rope to pull you up. I’m sure all that running away as a fugitive wore you out.”

“I am not a fugitive,” Martor growled.

“Yeah sure and all those diamonds just magically wound up in your possession. Then you accidentally travelled with them to different planets,” Blue Hair scoffed.

“T, please don’t berate them,” Blonde sighed. She jumped and caught the last section of the ladder of the fire escape, pulling it down to the ground before beginning her climb up.

“Actually yes, I had no idea those diamonds were on me,” Martor told Blue Hair, or ‘T’ Blonde had called her.

“Do you know how many times we’ve heard that? ‘It wasn’t me, I was framed.’ Well sorry it’s not our job to figure out if you’re innocent. We’ll bring you in and the beings who put you on trial will figure that out,” T snapped. She leaned down still holding their bound arms and wrapped a length of something around their ankles. It sealed by itself and their legs were bound together. Martor heard a whistle from above. They and T looked up to see Blonde Hair throw down a rope. T let of Martor’s arm and grabbed the rope. They could see why she bound their legs now. She was no longer holding them, but they could barely hop away if they wanted to. T tied the length of rope tight around Martor’s waist and began climbing the ladder herself. Martor looked up to see Blonde Hair tug on the rope and it slowly began shortening itself. Martor was swept off their feet and pulled by their waist up the side of the building.

Martor, feeling extremely uncomfortable with their rear high in air and spinning softly, turned their head back to T, “I won’t make it to trial. Let me guess you are taking me to the Authority not just the local police since I travelled off planet. Haven’t you heard about the disappearances in the Authority’s transfer system lately? I bet the minute you hand me over no one will ever see me again.”

“Please! That sounds like a conspiracy theory against the Authority to freak beings out,” T scoffed as she climbed. She reached the top of the building just before Martor and helped Blonde Hair pull them over the edge of the roof.

“No, it’s real, beings are disappearing, they say they are traded to slavers and sold off,” Martor said.

“That is ridiculous,” T said.

“What are they talking about?” Blonde Hair asked.

“Martor here says we shouldn’t give them to the Authority because beings are being traded off as slaves during transport,” T told her.

“Well that’s a new excuse we haven’t heard for why someone shouldn’t be turned in,” Blonde Hair rolled her eyes and then scanned the sky around them, “No sign yet.”

“Yup their stories get wilder every time,” T shook her head and scanned the sky with Blonde Hair.

“I’m being serious! If you-” Martor tried again, but was interrupted by T.

“Listen, I’ve been real nice up ‘til now, but if you keep going on like this, I’m going to put a gag on ya,” she threatened. Martor shut their mouth and as they saw a small ship rise above the buildings several streets away and fly in their direction.

~

“No Selva, I didn’t kiss your partner, but I could have since they think I’m more appealing than you!” M heard a voice scream from around the corner in the common room.

“What is that?” Once the team dropped Martor off in Art’s cell, they had each gone to get a check-up from Art in the med lab and get cleaned up. Showered and looking for something to eat, M walked into the common room and saw the source of the screaming. The large screen showed two beings, one with purple skin and white hair and another with sleek blonde fur covering their body, screaming at each other. T had changed from her uniform into sweatpants and a t-shirt and was sitting on one of the couches. She tapped her watch and muted the program.

“It’s a reality program, a bunch of beings who are supposed to be friends just fight all the time and then make up,” T explained smirking.

“That sounds terrible,” M said, but sat down next to her anyway watching the silent figures who still seemed to be screaming at each other.

“It is, and I love it. In that way that I hate it, but can’t stop watching” T laughed and popped a few pieces of a snack that was in a large bowl next to her, “It’s like a crash. You know you might see something potentially damaging, but you can’t look away.”

“I didn’t really think of you as a reality program person,” M said. Still staring at the screen she absentmindedly grabbing a few pieces of what T was eating, “I thought you’d like some sort of action, drama sort of thing.”

“Oh I do,” T agreed, “But after a job I like to relax and not really think so I need something dumb running through my head.”

M grinned and then jumped because in the program the purple being had thrown a lamp at the furry blonde, “Well it has some action.” T laughed and unmuted the show in time to hear the blonde scream obscenities at the other.

“Hey turn that off for a minute,” S came in the room, “Authority’s here.” T switched off the show just as the purple being slapped the blonde and S pulled up the communication screen. As always the little wheel spun for a moment before a being appeared. He was human and male as far as M could tell with a broad flat face and dark brown hair.

“Prism, I hear you have something of ours,” the man said with a smile.

“Good to see you Jesper,” S responded, smiling back, “Yes they’re waiting in our holding cell for you.”

“We’re ready, send them on over,” Jesper said, hitting a few buttons out of frame. S pulled up video footage of the cell and they could Martor sitting on the bed. She hit a button on her holo-screen and a selperm formed around the edge of the cell. With a surprised look on their face, Martor rose off the bed to float in the middle of the blue bubble. S hit another button and the airlock door opened to allow the selperm to move to the outer door. Once in place the airlock door closed and the outer one opened. S hit another button and they could now see footage of outside the ship. The selperm floated out toward an opening in the side of the Authority’s ship ready to receive Martor. With a tether still attached to Art, the selperm traveled the distance between them. When the blue bubble entered the Authority’s ship and the outer wall closed, the tether disappeared.

“Got him,” Jesper said and S pulled the comm video back up, “Thank you again, Prism.”

“Anytime,” S smiled at the officer again.

“S has a crush on him,” T whispered grinning mischievously to M. She was quiet enough so Jesper couldn’t hear, but S shot T a sour look.

“Are you interested in another job in the area?” Jesper asked.

“Of course, what do you need?” S asked sitting in her chair by the screen.

“You know Propulsion?” Jesper asked.

“The racing company?” M interjected, suddenly transfixed on the screen.

“This is our new team member,” S explained.

“Nice to meet you,” Jesper said quickly, “Yes, they recently had a driver lose a few races. Apparently in their contract with her, if she lost a certain number she had to pay the company a fee to cover the costs and she seems to have skipped out on them. Since it’s not distinctly an Authority matter, they contacted us to see if you could help.”

“Sounds like something we can handle,” T leaned forward and continued, “Who’re we looking for?”

“Her name is Elitha Tannet,” Jesper said and pulled up a picture of a pretty being with bright red hair and eyes. She’s originally from the planet-”

“Manergon,” said a voice. M whipped around and found that C had walked into the room and was staring at the screen with a shocked expression on her face.

“C, what’s wrong?” M asked. When C didn’t answer M looked around to S and T who saw they too had shocked expressions on their faces, “What is it? Who is this?”

“She used to have your job,” T said in a quiet voice.

“Oh,” M whispered in realization and looked back to the picture.

“Oh I thought she looked familiar. Is this going to be a problem?” Jesper asked warily.

“No,” S told him standing up, “We can do it. We’ll get in contact with Propulsion right away.”

“All right, until next time,” Jesper said and closed the comm.

“So, this Elitha, was M before me?” M asked.

“Yeah, the last one before you,” C sat down on the couch opposite T and M. Her face still held echos of shock, but now just looked empty. “Pretty name.”

“You didn’t know it?” M asked.

“No we just knew her as M, like you,” T said in a tone that suggested it should be an obvious fact.

“Well, yeah, I know she would be M while on the team, but I figured you’d know once she left,” M explained herself.

“No, Prism has set rules in place for when a team member leaves,” S explained, “We don’t have any contact with them. For safety purposes, so beings don’t know they used to be on Prism. M- I mean Elitha, told us she was leaving to be a racer, but that’s all we knew. We haven’t spoken to her since we dropped her off at the Quadrant 9 space station and haven’t spoken to her since.”

“Why there?” M asked.

“Pretty central,” T explained, “She could have go anywhere from there and we wouldn’t know.”

“Are you all right?” S asked sitting down next to C and putting a hand on her back.

“Yeah I’ll be okay,” C nodded, but her eyes didn’t leave the floor. She leaned into S who wrapped her arm around her.

“They were pretty close,” T explained to M under her breath.

“That guy, Jesper, was right to ask. Is this going to be a problem?” M asked.

“Well it’s going to be interestingly tactically,” T raised her eyebrows at S, “She knows us, knows how we work.”

“That will be a challenge,” S agreed.

“But we do have a secret weapon,” T grinned.

“What’s that?” M asked.

T turned to her and poked her in the shoulder, “You. She doesn’t know you.”

“You’re talking about her like she’s just another criminal,” C whimpered, “This is our friend. We spent over a year on this ship, eating meals and working with her. You’re acting like you’re enjoying this.”

“C, I’m sorry,” T shook her head, “I didn’t mean to, but she did something wrong and we’ve been hired to catch her. Just thinking like I would with any other job.”

“Well it’s not so maybe don’t,” C snapped and T seemed taken aback. She glanced at S before nodded.

“Okay… I’ll act differently, cool?” C nodded, but still looked upset. 

“Maybe when we find her she can explain what happened,” S said in a reassuring tone.

“Do you want to watch beings yell at each other about dumb stuff?” T asked pointing at the large screen. Her voice sounded like it was trying to be sympathetic, but it was just short of convincing.

“No,” C sighed, “I think I’ll go read in my bunk.”

“Will you be okay?” M asked, her voice achieved the right tone of sympathy.

“Yeah, thank you,” C smiled and left the room. The three women sat in silence for a minute.

“Well, I need to contact Propulsion,” S uncomfortably broke the silence, “Let them know we’re coming.” T nodded and stood up grabbing her food.

“I think I’ll go watch my program in my bunk,” she said and turned to M, “Did you want to keep watching?”

“Uh no,” M frowned, “Not really in the mood to watch friends fighting with each other right now considering...”

“Oh yeah, that’s a good point,” T said and slunk out of the common area.

The room fell quiet again except for the soft beeps coming from S’s holo-screen as she worked on contacting Propulsion. After a moment, S glanced over to M and saw she was deep in thought with a troubled look on her face.

“Are you okay?” she asked M who gave her a look as though she was surprised S was still there.

“Yeah,” M said, but didn’t sound like it, “I just- I was gonna get some food.” She promptly stood up and after ordering from Art, she took her plate with her as she left towards her own bunk. S’s confused gaze followed M until she was out of sight.

~

The next day Prism were ushered into an office on Propulsion’s space station. One wall was made up of glass and from it was a magnificent view of a selperm covered hanger below and the black expanse of space in front of it. M quickly walked over to the window to watch the mechanics and pilots working on the ships. S and C grabbed the two seats in front of the large desk, but T meandered to the wall opposite the glass to see all the pictures and memorabilia that hung there. 

In many of the pictures the same human man stood smiling and shaking hands with other beings in flight suits emblazoned with the Propulsion logo which looked like an old fashioned rocket blasting off straight up in the air. As T walked along the wall, the man’s hair slowly turned from black to gray and his athletic body gained a few more pounds. When she reached the photos near the desk she found one with the man and M, or Elitha, she kept having to correct herself. Elitha was smiling and shaking the man’s hand just like all the other pilots. T turned away and walked across the room to stand by their new M.

“Look at that!” M exclaimed and pointed at a small, skinny ship in the middle of the hangar, “It’s a Brightstar! I’ve never seen one in person, it’s amazing.” T smiled and raised her eyebrows at M.

“Um, what’s a Brightstar,” T asked. M ripped her eyes away from the ship to give T a look like she had kicked a puppy.

“What?” T asked a little shocked.

“It’s only the fastest and move maneuverable ship in the galaxy,” a voice said. The women all turned to the door that had just come in to see the man T saw in the photographs smiling, “and Propulsion paid a good price for it too.”

“It’s amazing,” M complimented.

“Well if you would like to go down and see it after our meeting I will gladly escort you,” the man walked over to her and gave her a warm smile as he held out his hand, “Thank you Prism for coming. I am-”

“Bestor Simpkins,” M burst out excitedly and shook his hand. Realizing she interrupted him, M tried to relax herself, “Excuse me, but I’m a big fan.”

“I can tell,” Simpkins laughed.

“She’s our mechanics and flight expertise expert,” T explained.

“M, nice to meet you,” the brown haired woman grinned at him.

“And you as well,” Simpkins said and turned to T, “And you are?”

“T,” she reached out and firmly shook his hand then pointed to her other teammates in the chairs, “This is S and C. We hear you have a runaway pilot.”

Simpkins sighed and shuffled behind his desk. He sat and leaned back looking solemn while T and M followed and stood beside C and S.

“Yes, it’s most unfortunate. I had high hopes for Tannet. She turned up out of the blue one day at our auditions, never worked for another racing company before and beat everyone else by a good minute and a half. Naturally, I hired her on the spot. The past few races though, she doesn’t seem like her heart is in it. I believe that’s why she lost so many.” 

As Simpkins told this story C glanced over to T and S. S was staring intently at Simpkins while T was staring far too hard at a pen on his desk. She knew them well enough to know they were trying not to exchange looks with each other and having difficulty resisting the urge.

“Well anyway, when we told her she wouldn’t be racing again until she paid what she owed for the cost of staffing a flight team for each race as it states in her contract, she agreed, but the next day she disappeared,” Simpkins finished.

“Why do pilots need to pay for lost races?” C asked.

“Flight teams are extremely expensive,” M answered for Simpkins, “When a driver wins a race they get a cut, but the company takes a larger percentage to cover that cost. If you don’t win, the company loses money.” 

“Precisely,” Simpkins nodded with another warm smile, “We can cover the cost for a number of races, but she just lost one too many.”

“Where do you think she would have gone?” T asked.

“I honestly have no idea and that’s what I was hoping you could find out for me,” Simpkins pulled out a small data disk from his desk, “This is her personnel file which includes a background check. Hopefully you could find some clues in there.” He pushed it across the top of the desk and S hesitated for a fraction of a second before she took it.

“We’ll do what we can,” S assured him.

“Thank you very much,” Simpkins replied, “The contract is legally binding so we can prosecute her through the Authority, but they are under no obligation to quickly find her as she doesn’t pose a threat to anyone as far as they can tell. So when I heard Prism could come in and help I was very relieved. Well then,” he slapped his large arms on the arms of his chair and stood up, “shall we go down to the hangar and take a look at the Brightstar?”

M swelled and the team see her eyes light up. She followed Simpkins around the desk to a lift behind it.

“If the rest of you would like to stay here, you would have a better view to see her fly it,” Simpkins gestured to the large windows.

“F-fly it?” M stuttered in shock and T chuckled.

“You are a flight expert for Prism, those are the only prerequisites I need,” Simpkins chuckled as well, “So you are more than welcome if you like.”

“Yeah I do!” M practically shouted. The pair climbed on the lift and the doors shut behind them.

“We better be careful or we’ll lose another M to Propulsion,” S joked dryly as the remaining team members walked over to the glass wall. T chuckled again, but cut herself short and frowned.

“I’m kidding,” S said.

“I know,” she smirked at S, “I just don’t want to go through a bunch of applications again. It takes forever.” S’s lips twitched up for a moment and then looked over to C who had been unusually quiet all day. C watched the hangar below with a sad look on her face. S put her arm around C’s shoulders and gave her a little shake and a smile. C gave a sad smile back and looked back down to the hangar.

~

A roar of noise greeted Simpkins and M when the lift doors opened onto the hangar.

“Private lift straight down to the hangar can be very handy,” Simpkins chortled. He led the way out under the huge blue bubble in the direction of the Brightstar. The shiny white exterior gleamed in the lights set up around it. “And don’t worry, I know the rules, they won’t know who you are. Ryfen!” Simpkins called and a bald, green being’s head popped up out of the cockpit of the Brightstar. They sprung down and greeted Simpkins and M with a handshake as the two walked up. 

“How is it today?” Simpkins asked gesturing to the ship just above them.

“Excellent, sir. Everything is in perfect condition,” Ryfen turned to look up at the ship with a glowing expression as though it was their baby.

“I have a pilot here who I would like to test drive it,” Simpkins indicated to M.

“Of course sir. If you come with me I’ll get you a helmet and suit,” Ryfen beckoned to M and they walked back a little ways to the side where several white bodysuits hung with matching white helmets sitting beneath them.

Moments later, M was suited up and climbing into the cockpit of the most pristine ship she had ever laid eyes, let alone her hands, on. Once she sat down and buckled in, she scanned all the controls, most of which she recognized and a few she had only read about in e-magazines when learning about the specs for this new ship.

“This is Propulsion to Brightstar, do you copy?” M heard in her helmet.

“I hear you Propulsion,” M responded. She hit a few buttons on the dash and the glass covering slid over her head.

“Any questions about the ship?” the voice asked.

M thought for a moment and grinned, “How fast can I go?”

“As long as you are in control then you take it as fast as you’d like,” the voice laughed, “The training track is clearly marked so you shouldn’t have any trouble there. We’re just clearing the deck and you will be good for take off.”

M looked out at the hangar and saw the crew clearing away the work lights behind a large orange painted line on the ground, far out of her way. She couldn’t help, but burst into a grin.

“You are cleared for ignition start, Brightstar.” M hit a few more buttons on the dash and the ship’s engine purred on. It wasn’t like most ships M had flown where she could feel the vibrations in her seat. Instead the Brightstar barely moved or made a sound, the only way she could tell it the engine had started was by the dash readings in front of her.

“You are cleared for hover, Brightstar.”

M grinned again as she hit another button and the ship’s landing gear retracted. The ship hovered 10 feet off the floor and M felt like she was floating. She gripped the throttle in front of her and tentatively pushed it forward. She turned the ship out onto the runway. It was even more sensitive to her movements than The Tube. The ship was so smooth and quiet, it barely felt like it was there.

“You are cleared for take off, Brightstar. Have fun.”

As protocol for all hangar exits, M pushed the throttle forward slowly and gripped the yoke directing the ship to the selperm. She watched at the nose of the ship split through the bubble and it surrounded her as the rest of the ship glided through. When she was free of it she looked at the track ahead of her. She practically knew it by heart from all the races she had watched in the past and almost didn’t need the large flashing arrows far ahead of her pointing the way.

“Brightstar taking off,” M said and thrust the throttle forward. The ship shot off and M felt a rush of adrenaline run through her. She rounded the first corner and sped of on the winding course that first lead racers away from and around the space station. The Brightstar’s speed couldn’t compare and it handled turns better than anything she had felt before. When she whipped it around the bends it almost felt like it knew where it needed to go before she moved the yoke.

She reached the outer ring of the track and turned onto it with a wide arc as she pushed the throttle even more. The ship fluidly accelerated around the corner and felt an odd sense of adrenaline rush and comfort at the same time as the ship soared at top speed around the track. She could see the huge space station to her left and the emptiness of space to her right.

The ship felt like it was gliding. The only thing that indicated how fast she was going was the ship’s dash and the space station. She wasn’t pushed back in her seat like when she flew most ships at top speed, but instead felt comfortably settled with her hands barely needing to touch the yoke to guide it. In the distance she thought she could make out the window wall where she knew her friends could watch her every time she rounded the bend to that side of the station.

After about 10 rapid laps around the track she heard the voice in her helmet telling her to bring the ship back in. As she approached the opposite end of the hangar that she had exited from, she turned the ship a little more and decelerated. By the time the ship was breaking the surface of the selperm again, she was traveling just as slow as when she first started out. She brought the ship to the center of the hangar where it had been before and activated the landing gear as she lowered the ship.

“Well done, very well done!” Simpkins praised after the glass to the cockpit had retreated and she was climbing down to the floor, “I dare say if you didn’t already have a job I’d offer you one now. Unless you want me to offer you one?”

M laughed, “ Thank you, but I like my job.”

~

The entire flight back to Art, M couldn’t stop talking about her flight in the Brightstar. Her words flew from her so fast and she used so many flight and ship terms that S seemed to be the only one who could actually follow along. T sat in the back, trying to look like she was following along. She had a small smile on her face, but other than that her eyebrows were raised, looking a little confused. C, on the other hand, heard nothing of the stream of excitement. The entire ride back she was staring at the small file disk in her hand. When they finally reached Art, the other three women hopped out of the mini craft and turned to look back at the last team member who hadn’t moved.

“C?” T asked, “You in there?” C finally lifted her head and realized where they were. She hurriedly unstrapped and jumped down from the craft.

“Sorry, just thinking,” C said as they climbed onto the lift and asked it to go to the common room.

“Don’t be sorry. I know it’s going to be weird, but it’s okay. At least she’s still out there,” S nodded and looked down to disk in C’s hand with a solemn look. M’s face twisted with an unasked question and she turned to T, who took a deep breath.

“We told you how we can’t know anything about the former team members when they leave?” T asked, ready to answer M’s question before she even asked. M nodded. “Well the only time we can look up their personnel file is if” T paused, “they die.”

“Oh,” M’s expression changed to one of realization. The lift doors opened onto the common area and the women exited one by one.

“Yeah, we need to see who they are so we can inform their family,” T explained.

“Have you had to that before?” M asked. “Sorry, I know that can be kind of personal, if you don’t want to answer…” she trailed off.

“We haven’t,” T nodded over to C, “But S has, she’s been here the longest.”

S sighed as she and the other women all sat around the table, “I’ve had to do it once and it’s not something I want to go through again.” Everyone around the table grew quiet.

T finally leaned forward and said, “You know what? No, we need to stop this now. This is a job, we said we would take it and it wouldn’t be a problem. This can’t be different. We need to look at this disk like it’s any other being we’d go after, but also use what we know about her and what we learn from this file to bring her in. We can’t let our feelings get in the way.”

S nodded and sighed, “I’m sorry C, but I agree.”

“Not a problem for me,” M said. They all turned to C who was still staring warily at the disk.

“C, do you think you can do that?” S asked.

C’s immense eyes rose to look at her team around the table, “This is my friend, and it will be hard, but this is my team now and I will have your back first.”

“I think that’s as good as we’re gonna get right now,” T sighed, “Let’s see who is Elitha.”

C slipped the disk into the side of the table, “Sorry, again, obviously this won’t be a normal briefing. I normally check it out on the ride back, but I just couldn’t.”

“We’ll go through it together,” S smiled at her. In the middle of the table a hologram popped up of a stock company image of Elitha. She was smiling, but it was posed. The type of smile you give when you are told to do so instead of the one you give when you’re actually happy.

“Elitha Tannet,” C began, “Originally from the planet Manergon, of which she is a native.” Everyone instinctively turned their attention to the hologram’s bright red hair and eyes. “That means she runs a little hotter than most beings. The planet is volcanic and over time the inhabitants evolved to live among that.” C tapped a spot on her holo-screen and a bright red and black planet hologram appeared on the table. “Looks like she doesn’t really have any family. Her parents died when she was younger and she left Manergon as soon as she could picking up odd jobs on ships and working her way up to pilot. That’s why she was such a good M and built The Tube. She knew every inch of almost every type of ship and what would make it work best.”

“I’m impressed,” M said, “So that means she probably won’t be headed for Manergon.”

“Yeah, doubt it,” T replied, “Nothing to pull her back there.”

“Anyway,” C tapped her screen and a list pulled up on the hologram, “She started doing illegal racing which is where she learned to fight and also where she heard about Prism because it’s not so great of a crowd and we’ve had to go after a fair number of them for whatever reason. So she looked into the team and found that they needed a new M so she applied. I wasn’t here yet, but T and S were.”

“She was the obvious choice,” S said, “The best knowledge of ships out of anyone and her background in the illegal races gave her a lot of good connections that we wouldn’t normally have and frankly don’t have since she left.”

“We have Nan or had,” T protested, “But she’s underground, kind of.”

“Never again,” S snapped.

“Hence I said had,” T grumbled.

“But she quit,” M said getting the topic back on track.

“She got bored,” T said, looking annoyed, “The life of catching bad guys didn’t really satisfy her interests and she wasn’t making as much money as she was on those races.”

“So when she heard that Propulsion was holding auditions and found out how much money she could make from them,” C took over the story, “She was gone, almost overnight.”

“She just abandoned you out of the blue?” M asked.

“Pretty much,” T exhaled, exasperated. 

M continued warily, “So she could be underground with any number of old convict acquaintances.”

“Yup, not gonna be easy to find her,” T sighed and leaned back in her chair, folding her arms.

“I just don’t understand why she would have lost those races in the first place,” C grumbled and put her chin in her hands. “She loves racing, she wouldn’t have just lost. Remember she always kept up on all the racing events around the galaxy?”

“Oh I remember. I also remember her screaming at the program and everyone around her when her favorite lost a race so that wasn’t really fun,” T drawled.

“Oh…” M groaned slowly.

“Actually,” S interrupted trying to get the conversation back on course, “Elitha wouldn’t have that many underground connections anymore. She worked for Prism, she used those connections to help us catch beings sometimes. I’m sure word got around and there aren’t too many who are still friendly with her.”

“So, who could she go to that would still hide her?” T asked. Once again instinctively they all turn to C who was deep in thought. After a moment she looked up to see them all and jumped a little.

“Well, I don’t know!” She exclaimed, “I’ll have to think about it. It’s not like she told me a place she would go if she ever planned to run out on a contract.”

“Well judging by what you’ve told me I’m not surprised she took off when she realized she lost more money than she was gaining,” M said offhandedly, “She might have gone to just find another way to earn some cash whether illegal or not. What kind of jobs do you think she’s take?”

“She’s not a criminal!” C spat. M looked taken aback.

“Well, she is though?” T pointed out as sensitively as possible, but again, not convincingly, “We’ve been hired to catch her and turn her into the Authority.”

“Yeah and you yourself said she started in illegal races and run in tough crowds. If she’s desperate enough for money she might take any job she could get.” M turned to S and T with a pleading look to back up her logic. T nodded, but S didn’t move.

C stared at M and T for a moment, open mouthed, tears welling. Then quite suddenly she ejected the disk from the table and left for her quarters.

“Okay, what happened between them?” M looked confused now, “I was just trying to think of this logically, like you said.” She gestured to T.

“It’s not really our story to tell,” S sighed.”

“I just- because I don’t know that history I didn’t realize that would upset her,” M defended.

“No I know… you’re not wrong,” T agreed.

“C herself is extremely good at seeing the best in everyone; and they were very close. Once she does see someone’s good side it’s very hard for her to accept the bad side.” S told her. M sighed, understanding flashing behind her eyes.

“I actually can relate to that part of it. I going go talk to her, to apologize for upsetting her, I suppose,” M stood up turning to T, “Do you want to too…?”

“Nope, I never like M, C knows that. I don’t think she’d believe an apology from me on this case in particular.”

“Fair,” M nodded.

“T and I can continue working on where Elitha might have gone,” S told her as M left the room.

~

M knocked on the door to C’s room. No one answered.

“C, I’m sorry for upsetting you, I’d like to talk to you if you’ll let me,” M said through the door. For a moment nothing happened, just as she was about to knock again the door slid open and she found C frowning at her.

“I’m sorry,” M repeated.

C nodded and sighed, “Thank you. I’m sorry too, this is the first person who has left since I joined the team and it’s not as though this is just a casual run-in with them.” C walked back into her quarters. M followed and found a room much like her own with a double sized bed kitty corner to the door. A dresser stood in the corner opposite her and a door which she knew led to a bathroom in the corner to her left. A small desk and stool were directly to her left and she could see a large number of disks and electronic components on it. A large window set at the low end of the slanting ceiling was filled with the black of space outside. C scooted back on her bed and leaned against the metal wall. She gestured to the stool to indicate that M should sit.

“Mind if I ask you a question and I promise I don’t mean it in a bad way?” M asked.

“Sure,” C shrugged.

“I know I don’t know you very well yet, but it doesn’t seem like you and Elitha have a lot in common,” M said hesitantly, trying not to be misconstrued, “How did you two become so close?”

C’s mouth twisted in a sad smile and leaned her head back on the wall, “M- or Elitha had the same relationship views as me.”

“Oh, okay, T said you were interested in a relationship with male presenting beings just not the physical attraction part of it,” M said.

“Yeah, well more specifically sexual attraction. It’s not that uncommon, but it was nice to have someone who felt that way on the team. We could relate, understand each other in a way the others couldn’t. She’s a little different in that she was interested in women instead of men, but still.”

“I understand that,” M paused, “Can I ask you another somewhat personal question?” C nodded. “If you aren’t interested in sex, how does a gender factor in with someone you might date?”  
“It’s just a feeling,” C explained, “Just as you feel you’d want develop a relationship with multiple genders, I feel only want to have a relationship with one, just as I feel that I’m not interested in sex being part of that.”

“And… Tareks don’t have gender right?” M asked.

“Yeah, on my planet everyone is built pretty much the same. Same ears, eyes, skin tone, and everything else,” As she said this C gestured with her extra long fingers to her double pointed ears, silver hair, and greenish blue skin. “We only have one pronoun for everyone. When I left and joined a more integrated society it was a little weird that there were multiple,” C moved forward on her bed so she leaned toward M, “But then I really identified with the she and her pronouns so I started going by that. I also realized I only tended to romantically like the beings with he and him pronouns. But yeah sex on Tarek doesn’t really happen and I didn’t really identify with that part of this society. I have friends from Tarek who have moved and are attracted to beings in that way, but I’m just not.”

“I can see why Elitha made you feel a little more comfortable.”

“It was someone who really experienced it, not just accepted it,” C grinned, but her face fell again, “But I can’t think like that right now, we need to treat this like any other job.”

“Do you think you can really separate your friend from the being we’re chasing?” M asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ve gotta try,” C sighed.

“I think that’s the best idea, but don’t ignore those feelings. Doing that will just make you more upset. I can’t pretend to like this being, but I’m a really good listener so if it’s ever too much feel free to dump on me. Just to get it out, so you can focus.”

“Thank you,” C smiled before realization dawned on her face. Jumping off her bed, she exclaimed, “Aruban.”

“What?” M asked, standing to face her.

“Aruban!” C said excitedly.

“I don’t- does that mean something? Am I supposed to know that?” M asked.

“No, you’re not!” C almost shouted and ran out of her room, with M at her heels. They ran back into the common area and found S and T staring at them, confused.

“Aruban!” C shouted at them.

“No!” T shouted back, her confused look turning to concern.

“Yes!” C replied and ran over to the large screen and activated her holo-screen.

“We cannot go there,” S said, who also looked unnerved.

“It’s a place? I’m still confused,” M said.

“Aruban is a dead rock in the middle of nowhere that serves as a waystation for criminals trying to disappear. They can get new identities, find rides on ships, fence stolen items, just a slew of bad beings,” T clarified.

“So wait, how is it different from Baumar?” M asked.

“No one lives on Aruban,” S answered, “Baumar is a place beings go to disappear. Aruban is an under the radar launching point to every illegal end of the universe.”

“Also, they will blow up your ship if you get near and don’t have a password!” T called out to C who was still working on the large screen and ignored her.

“Ah, that sounds… well, bad, really bad,” M deadpanned as she sat down on a couch watching C, and T snorted in amusement. 

“We can’t go there, C. We’ve never been there, we know nothing about it, including the layout,” T argued.

“M, other M, Elitha, told me enough about it,” C tried to assured her and continued working on her holo-screen. They all continued to watch C work for a moment hoping she would finally explain herself and finally she turned back around. “Okay, so, Aruban; yes, it’s not the prettiest gem in the galaxy, but Elitha knew a lot of beings who frequented there including-” she hit a spot on her holo-screen and on the large screen a being’s face appeared.

“What the-?!” T barked as she jumped a little. Staring into the room was an image of a very angry, bright yellow being with inch long spikes covering their face. A few had broken off and scarred over.

“Who is that?” S asked.

“This is Reyta,” C informed them, grinning from ear to ear, “She makes a very good living carting beings to and from Aruban and she and Elitha used to date.”

T’s eyes grew wide and she rested her hands on her cheeks as though trying to understand what it would feel like with spikes, “Oh I wanna see that.”

“T,” S scolded. T looked to her, raising up her hands and shaking her head as though she didn’t know what she did wrong. 

“And what are we going to do about all the other nefarious little beasties floating around there?” T challenged as she stood from the table and dropped on the couch next to M, “Art’s a little big.”  
“Uh,” C intoned, putting her chin in her hand, suddenly seeing this problem.

“Well obviously she’ll be able to keep Art from being seen on the detect software on the other ships,” M helped.

“Of course,” C agreed.

“We can’t take Art,” S said.

“What?” C looked confused.

“We can’t take Art,” S confirmed, “He’s too big and to some of those criminals, he’s too recognizable. We’ll be made before we even get close to it.”

“Well,” M smacked her lips, “Good thing we’re at a spaceship company. I’m sure Propulsion has something we can borrow.”

“And good thing Simpkins loves you,” T teased.

~

“What a piece of junk! It’s perfect!” T’s voice echoed around the large hangar they were all standing in. Before them stood a ship about half the size of Art, but far more run down.

“This can fly?” S asked warily.

“Oh yes,” Ryfen said, “We just got it in and haven’t started taking it apart yet.”

“Sorry, what?” C asked.

“About a little while ago Propulsion started a recycled ship system,” M explained, walking up and down the ship, inspecting it, “Beings can bring their run down ships here instead of a junkyard and Propulsion will pay them for it.”

“Oh, but of course Propulsion then tears it apart, sells off all the parts, and makes a profit on it,” T scoffed.

“Exactly,” M said, “Yes, this should be exactly what we need. Let me check that the engine is good to go and we should be ready to leave in about an hour.” She rounded the end and disappeared on the far side.

“I suppose I shouldn’t ask why someone who can fly a Brightstar wants a recycled ship?” Ryfen asked.

“Nope, thanks for your help buddy,” T clapped him on the shoulder as she walked past him. She pressed a button on the side a ramp slowly descended at the front end of the ship. The team gathered around it and just as it hit the floor of the hangar, a metal sheet of the side of the side fell off.

“I can fix that,” M shouted and ran up to it, “I can fix it, we got it.” She nodded and smiled at Ryfen as he left the room shaking his head.

“Just call on the comm I gave you when you’re ready to leave!”

“All this for Aruban,” S muttered as she climbed the ramp.

“So what’s our plan here?” T asked following her up.

“Well I suppose sit here while M fixes this thing, if she can,” S looked around they had walked into a large storage area with metal staircases lining the wall.

“I like it,” C walked up to them, “it feels kind of home-y.”

“No, I mean after we leave,” T clarified, “Who’s going to ride in Art?”

“I think I should,” S nodded, “I won’t be needed to fly and you should check out the ship for tactical advantages just in case.”

“I want to look over the computer systems in here,” C chimed in. 

“Perfect, so I’ll follow you all in Art and just when we’re just out of range of Aruban, I’ll fly over here.”

“OK, that sheet is fixed!” M walked up the ramp, carrying her toolbag, “Let me take a look at the engine and we can get out of here.”

“I’ll head up to the pilot’s deck,” C climbed up the stairs, “Let’s hope the computers aren’t too ancient!”

“I’ll go with you,” S followed.

“Would you mind helping me with the engine?” M asked T.

“Uh, I know nothing,” T warned.

“I just need someone to me things, mostly,” M laughed.

“Oh I can do that,” T grinned. They climbed up the staircases to a metal catwalk. As they walked along it M poked her head into an alcove.

“Yup, shuttle, and,” M turned her head to look across the cargo bay, “Yup another one over there. May be handy if they still run.” They continued on the catwalk up more stairs into a hallway. M automatically turned toward the back of the ship.

“Engine will be back here,” she said.

“How can you tell?” asked T, “I mean, Art’s is at the bottom.”

“This ship has old fashioned thrusters that point out the back, and need to connect directly to the engine,” M instructed as they walked, “Art has an engine that controls not only thrusters, but everything in the ship so it doesn’t really matter where his engine is, but the bottom near the hangar where the spacecrafts are located works well mechanically.”

“Where are Art’s thrusters?” T asked, she felt just as she did a couple weeks ago that this new team member knew so much more about Art though she had been there longer. She knew everything she needed to and the rest wasn’t her job so didn’t matter.

“Underneath our bedrooms, basically,” M descended a few stairs into a room where a large cylinder shaped piece of machinery ran the length of the room, “Just under the lip of the rounded top and they rotate depending on where we need to go.”

“I never hear anything.”

“No, you wouldn’t since Art has an extremely powerful electrical engine that runs on solar power. It’s virtually silent, which works well for us traveling under the radar. However when we start this guy up, it’s going to get loud.” M set down her bag as she laid on her back and scooted underneath the engine. T sat with her back against the wall as she watched her work. They sat in relative silence while M concentrated on her task. Occasionally she would ask for a tool, and T would dig through her bag usually finding the wrong tool about three times before finally handing M the right one.

“All right, everything looks pretty good,” M finally said, “Just a few little tweaks and we can go find Elitha.”

“Good, I’m getting antsy,” T chuckled.

“You really don’t like her do you?” M asked as something she was tinkering with clanked. T looked up and around her at the ship.

“Uh, no while it’s perfect for what we need,” she shrugged, “I kind of feel like we’re gonna die,” T gave a small laugh as M finally emerged from under the engine.

“I meant Elitha,” M corrected.

“Oh! Yeah, kind of from day one. The red eyes always freaked me out a bit. I could never look her straight in the face,” T laughed, “I tried to get past it, but then you know she spoke.” M smiled and met her gaze as she packed up some tools.

“That bad?” she asked. T paused, thinking.

“I don’t really like beings,” T started slowly, carefully choosing her words, “who give me the feeling that whenever I speak to them, even about something benign, I’m giving them ammo to destroy me.”

M looked like her heart had stopped, “Wow, yeah, that’s bad.”

“I can’t help, but feel like C ignored that just because she had something in common with her that was so important and personal to the both of them. And, if I’m being honest; that makes me a little nervous about how C will react on this job.”

M stood, picking up her toolbag, “Do you she’d let Elitha get away?”

“No, absolutely not,” T also stood to face M, “I’m just afraid she’ll let her guard down and get hurt in the process.” Neither of them said anything, letting the words hang heavy in the air around them, until T twitched, as though shaking it away. 

Smiling at M, she prompted, “You ready?”

“Yup,” M breathed a quick sigh relief and seemed to bolster her own energy, focusing back on the ship, “Let’s see what this baby can do!” M lead the way out of the engine room and along the long hallway all the way up to the front where they found C and S working on the pilot’s deck.

~

“How’s it goin?” M asked the two women seated in the pilot chairs to the left and right of the control room.

“The computer systems on this are so old. I mean, I’m pretty sure they were old when they were installed in the ship! How has this thing been running for so long?” C asked. Her watch was hardwired into the control panel and she was frustratingly prodding at her holoscreen.

“Will it work?” M asked and peered over her shoulder. 

“Oh it will work,” C grumbled, “Won’t do anything fancy, but it’ll work. I’ll make it.” T stifled a laugh and walked up behind S who was curiously examining the pilot controls.

“How’s this going?” she asked. S drew in a deep breath and said quietly, “I really hope M can fly this thing because I don’t think I would be able to.”

“I can fly it,” M joined them, “This isn’t all that different from ships at home. To me, Art Two was a little more complicated than this guy. You may have to fly a shuttle though, so you might want to check that out.”

“All right... if you’re sure you can do it,” S surrendered the pilot’s seat to her and left the room for the shuttles. 

M pressed her ear comm and asked, “Ryfen? Can you hear me?” 

“Heard,” Ryfen’s voice sounded in her ear, “You ready to go?”

“All ready,” M responded and began flipping switches and toggles on the control panel.

“All right, hangar door is open for you,” to their left a wall literally split in two and slowly moved apart to reveal a selperm barrier and their exit.

“Okay, come on you can do this,” M flipped a final switch and nothing happened.

“Um, that’s not right is it?” T asked.

“C?!” M asked flipping switches all over the dash.

“Everything is good at my end,” C told her.

“Don’t you need something like fuel?” T asked.

“It has fuel, Ryfen just filled it,” M grumbled and ducked under the control panel. She rummaged through a mess of wires and finally seemed to find what was wrong because she cheered and the plugged a connection in. The ship threw T and C backwards as it kicked into life, roaring and rumbling underneath them. 

“Sorry, sorry, I got it,” M hurried back up to the pilot’s seat and took control of the ship.

“You weren’t lying when you said we’d be able to hear it,” T shouted over the noise.

“It will be quieter when we get out of the hangar,” M shouted back.

“What was that?” S asked loudly as she climbed the stairs back into the control room.

“Just a little malfunction, we’re all good now, you okay?” M called back to her.

“I’m fine,” S gripped the door frame, to try and steady herself from the ship’s shaking, “I’m pretty sure I can fly that shuttle, but after this take off, I really don’t want to.”

“Very funny,” M rolled her eyes, “All right, we’re ready for lift off.”

“Wait, I need to get back to Art Two,” S said, “You don’t know how happy I am that I’m the only other one that can fly a craft and won’t be riding on this for most of the trip,” S turned and disappeared out of the control room. T stuck out her tongue after her. A minute later they saw her walk out in front of the ship and give them as thumbs up. M closed the ramp behind her. S turned and walked through the hangar back to Art Two and climbed in.

“Let’s go!” M exclaimed, almost excited and she pulled the ship up. It groaned as it pulled off the floor.

“Oh we’re gonna die. I should have gone with S!” T groaned and gripped the back of the pilot’s seat that C was in.

“I’d take a portal over this!” C shouted.

“Illegal, but me too,” T grinned, nervously.

“I know, I was joking,” C told her.

“I’m not and you know me and portals….,” T said vaguely as she gripped the seat a little harder.

“It’s fine, we’re fine!” M cried out, but she gripped the steering column a little too hard, “It’s just the artificial gravity in the hangar, once we get out there we’ll be fine.”

“You keep saying that, could you get us out there please?” T shouted at her. M responded by pushing the throttle forward gently and the old ship crawled its way toward the selperm.

“Ryfen, we’re heading out,” M said to her comm.

“You’re cleared to go,” he responded. She pushed the throttle a bit farther and the ship pushed through the selperm and out into empty space. M was right, the roar from the engines died a bit, and the groaning of the metal almost stopped. The floor still shook, but two out of three wasn’t bad. The team seemed to collectively relax. M checked the ship detection system to make sure S was behind her and the pushed the throttle harder. The ship took off towards Art in the distance.

~

M figured out how to set the ship’s course so she was able to walk around with T and C exploring the ship. They found crew quarters, a med bay, and an old fashioned kitchen.

“How do you get food?” T asked walking through it.

“You cook it,” M almost sounding annoyed.

“Oh, weird,” T fell back a little, taken back by M’s sudden tone as she ran a finger through the dusty countertop. Most of their time was spent up in the control room. They kept in contact with S traveling with Art close behind. The trip to Aruban was long enough that they should have slept, but no one on the old ship could get much. Each took it in turns to nap as they flew, but never for very long or very well. Finally, as they neared Aruban, M stopped the ship and took a shuttle to bring S over. C remotely programmed Art to become undetectable by other ships, and to physically move if a ship fly in its path. Finally, just in case, she set it to automatically fly for Propulsion if anyone tried to access it while they were gone. T sat in nervous tension hoping nothing broke on the old thing during the 10 minutes it took for them to get back.

“So C, do you have a plan for finding this Reyta?” S asked when they were on their way to Aruban again. She was sitting on the floor by the door with her back against the wall. C was sitting opposite her with her back against the control panel.

“I would imagine she hangs around the port. Beings post outside their ships about where they’re headed and pick up passengers,” C suggested. The other women stared at her. “What? Again, Elitha told me about it,” C shrugged.

“Did she happen to tell you anything about what this Reyta is like?” M asked now definitely sounding annoyed, “I mean at this point we’re going to a place we know nothing about to talk to a being we also know nothing about.”

“Not really,” C gave M a confused look.

“Well if she’s anything like Elitha, I should probably keep away. Don’t want to cause a ruckus and draw attention.”

“Ah yes, the famous T and M fights,” S sighed, “Those were bad.”

“She was trying to tell me how to do my job!” T defended.

“I wasn’t saying anything against you,” S held up her hand calmly, “I’m just saying the fights were bad.”

“Like physical?” M raised her eyebrows at T and crossed her arms.

“No I wouldn’t hurt one of my team members… on purpose,” T shook her head, “Just a lot of yelling.” She sighed and leaned her head back on the chair closing her eyes. “Hey C, what if Reyta is out on a run?”

“We’ll have to think of something else,” C shrugged. T lolled her head to the side to give her an exasperated expression.

“So we’ll have boarded this death trap for nothing?” She joked.

“It’s not a death trap,” M grumbled.

“Well we’ll see I guess,” T smiled and leaned her head back again closing her eyes, “I’m gonna try and sleep. If we die, wake me up.”

“You got it,” C said absentmindedly. The team fell into silence again as they grew closer to their destination. They began to see other ships every once and awhile coming from the opposite direction.

Finally, M broke the silence and and said, “I’m guessing that’s it.” The other women stood or turned so they could look out the front windows. Before them was asteroid floating on its own with several ships scattered around it. It wasn’t the size of a moon, but close. Built into the side was a large metal door. They watched as it opened and a ship flew it.

“Yup,” S said, straightening her shoulders, steeling herself.

“I didn’t realize it was inside of it, I imagined surface like everything else,” M said shocked, “Now I see why you need a password.”

“Oh no it’s entirely built up in there,” C said pulling herself to her feet and poking T awake, “I’ve heard it’s actually somewhat impressive.” 

“For a den of crime,” T mumbled sleepily.

“Exactly,” S responded. 

T immediately sat up, rubbing the grogginess from her face. “Great, who’s got a password?”

“Just need a moment for that,” C said as she pulled up her holo-screen.

“Are you hacking them?” M asked.

“Not them, but that guy,” C pointed at a ship a little ways above them that was flying for the entrance. “And just their comm system.” Out of her watch speakers they heard a faint buzzing sound. The ship drew near to the door and they heard a loud beep and a raspy voice say, “Password?”

“Markt do Bret,” the other voice said. The metal door opened to a selperm and the ship smoothly entered through it.

“Are you kidding me?” T muttered.

“What?” M asked.

“That’s Ongori; and not exactly classy,” T rolled her eyes.

“I only understood ‘markt’ and based on that I don’t think I want to know the rest,” M frowned.

“No you really don’t,” T sighed, she put her feet up on the control panel, “So we good to go?”

“You don’t think they would have a different password for different ships?” S asked, “What if that one is like Reyta and a regular here and they are given a specific password?”

“Elitha said they change it daily and that’s it,” C assured her.

“You want to hack the next one to be sure?” T nodded at a ship flying towards them from the opposite side of Aruban. C rapidly worked on her holo-screen and once again they heard the raspy voice ask for the password and a different voice respond with ‘markt do bret’.

“All right, I’m satisfied,” T shrugged.

“Agreed,” S said as M and C nodded. M pushed the ship forward, closing in on the metal door. A small ping went off accompanied by a light on the control panel above a button labelled, ‘Comm’. T was closest and pressed the button. The raspy voice came over the intercom system and asked, “Password?”

“Markt do bret,” T responded. The second that followed was filled with nervous tension as they waited for a response. Finally the large metal doors opened and M quickly flew the ship through the selperm. They found themselves in a dimly lit tunnel leading inward. M carefully navigated through before they emerged in a huge open area. The entire center of the rock’s mass had been carved out and metal walkways circling the open space were set into the walls. The walkways traveled all the way up the cavern and an assortment of stalls selling food and good, sleeping areas, and an assortment of other nefarious activities crowded in making it look like a skyscraper turned inside out. The landing area was located on the bottom of the cavern. Over a hundred ships sat in neat rows along the rocky floor. M pointed the ship towards them and found a free spot to land.

“Whoa,” T breathed looking up through the front windows of the ship at all the different levels of walkways above them, “This is more extensive than I expected.”

“Here, I grabbed these from Art,” S held out grimy, old jackets with large hoods, “I can almost guarantee at least one being here will know us, we need to keep our faces covered. They each put on a jacket and pulled the hoods up to cover their faces. M led the way down to the cargo hold and opened to front hatch.

“So, C, we should look around here first, right?” M asked as they walked down the front ramp and looked around.

“I think so,” C peered at their surroundings as well, “It looks kind of deserted though.” M closed the hatch of the ship and joined the others in the middle of the empty space between the rows of ships.

“Well, we should start walking,” S suggested, “Everyone still have their comms in?” They all nodded. “Great let’s split up, two and two, C and I can go this way, M and T can go that way.” She pointed in opposite directions up the aisle. “We’ll comm each other if we see Reyta.” The pairs nodded, turned, and walked down the aisles. C and S scanned the ships around them, but didn’t see anyone. They continued up and down all the aisles, but no one could be found.

Over the comm they heard T’s voice, “There’s no one down here. We’ll have to go up.” They headed for an old lift they spotted at the end of a row. As they reached it M and T walked up beside them.

“C, I thought you said beings stand by their ships trying for passengers?” M asked.

“That’s what Elitha said!” C shrugged, “I have no idea why there’s no one down here.”

“This makes me very uneasy,” S said as she pressed a button to call the lift. It slid down to meet them and when the doors opened the team automatically stepped back. A large, hunched being with one eye squeezed out of it with difficulty and shuffled past them. S and climbed on to the lift, but T hesitated.

“Hey you,” T called after the being. It turned around slowly and glared at her. “How come there’s nobody givin’ rides down here?” She waved her finger around.

“You stupid?” The being growled.

“Let’s pretend I am,” T took a step toward them.

“We just haven’t been here in awhile,” M stepped in.

“They’re all up on level 10 now cause of all the kidnappin’s,” It waved a large hand upward, “Nobody walks here alone.”

“You are,” T raised her eyebrows. The being stared at her as it straightened its back to its full height which towered over T and was wider than her arm span. 

“You think somebody’s gonna kidnap me?” It snarled.

“Uh no, congratulations on your impressive form, have a good trip,” T turned and with M almost leading her by the arm they followed S and C into the lift.

“Level 10,” T said and hit a button labelled appropriately.

“Kidnappings?” C asked, “What is he talking about?”

“It’s like that being Martor was saying,” S nodded to T, “Beings disappearing.”

“Wait, what is this?” M asked.

T rolled her eyes, “When you two were off getting The Tube, Martor tried to tell us that The Authority were making beings disappear. They would be put on a transfer ship and never be seen again. Really S, do you think The Authority can get in here? We barely did.”

“It’s the second time we’ve heard something like it recently. I just made a connection, it doesn’t mean there’s a correlation,” S shook her head.

“It’s not like they don’t have slavers who come here,” C said, “Maybe some group has been using this place as their supply lately.”

T sighed, “Now that we have seen the inside, at some point we need to come back and take this place down.”

“That sounds extremely challenging,” M griped.

“And” T cocked her head.

“I’m in,” M shrugged looking above to where they were headed as T smirked.

“We can’t just bust a bunch of criminals for no reason,” S told them.

“The reason is that they’re terrible,” T pointed out.

“Where would we put them all?” C asked.

“We just lock it down like a slaver,” M suggested.

“Oh, I do not want to see the carnage that would happen by locking all the worst beings in the galaxy in this place,” T groaned. The lift doors opened onto level 10. Beings were milling around either shopping at booths or having hushed conversations on the side close to the wall. A few were sitting in chairs sleeping or working on handheld or holographic devices or fiddling with things that the team members Prism couldn’t place. Next to them they had signs scribbled with different destinations around the galaxy, and even a few listed places outside their galaxy.

“I think we’re in the right spot,” M droned as they climbed off the lift. Making sure their hoods were pulled far enough forward to hide their faces, the four made their way down the level looking at those beings in chairs, hoping to spot yellow skin. Halfway around the cavern, they reached an opening in the rock wall that led to a large cave. The light was dim, but they could see beings sitting and laughing at tables or off silently on their own. A bar sat against the left wall with a short, grumpy looking bartender cleaning glasses.

T stopped in her tracks, “Hey. I think we found our girl.” Turning nonchalantly, she tilted her head quickly to direct their gazes inside the bar. The others covertly peered in and sure enough, all the way in the back they could see a face bright yellow skin and spikes.

“Reyta,” C whispered and walked toward her.

“I’ll go with her,” S told the others, “You two keep watch.” T nodded and beckoned for M to follow her over to the bar where she could survey the entire room.

~

“Reyta?” C asked walking up to her. She was sitting with another being the size and width of C’s arm who had to sit with on a wooden block in order to reach the table.

“Who are you?” Reyta frown and looked C and S up and down. 

“I heard you give rides,” C continued ignoring the question.

“Who told you that?” Reyta’s frown deepened.

“Elitha,” C said. Reyta continued to stare for a moment and then her eyes flicked between S and C and then around the bar and stopped on the two new beings at the bar. She turned to her tablemate.

“Give me a bit,” she said. The being hopped down from the chair and walked toward the bar dragging the stool behind them. Reyta gestured at the two chairs across from her and C and S sat. Reyta leaned back in her chair and rested her arm along to back on the empty one next to her and surveyed the two women.

“You and your team have a lot of guts for showing up here,” Reyta hissed, “How’d you even get in?”

“Don’t worry about that,” C whispered.

“I see you know who we are,” S responded, “Thank you for not revealing it.

“I haven’t decided on that yet,” Reyta glared at S.

“We’re looking for Elitha,” C drew Reyta’s gaze back to her, “We thought she might have reached out to you for transport.”

“Why are you looking f-” Reyta stopped, “Wait, were hired to find her?”

“Do you think we were?” S asked flatly. 

Reyta stared at her drink for a moment before saying, “I know what happened. I know she’s on the run.”

“So she did come to you?” C asked.

“Yeah,” Reyta sighed, “But I didn’t take her anywhere, “I told her it would be dumb because if someone came looking for her I’d be an obvious choice. And now here you are.”

“Do you know who did?” S asked.

“And why would I tell you,” Reyta snapped and then lowered her voice, “when you just arrest her.”

“We wouldn’t,” C said and S jerked her head toward her, “We were hired, but she’s our friend. We just want to find her, help her. We care about her.”

“No, you don’t,” Reyta shook her head, “I know why she left.”

“That has nothing to do with this. I will always care about her,” C said, a defensive tone on the edge of her voice. S glanced between Reyta and C as a thought dawned on her.

“I am starting to get the feeling that Elitha didn’t just leave because she found a new job,” S challenged.

“Oh, your friends don’t know?” Reyta sneered, “They don’t know that Elitha told you she loved you, but you turned her down? That it’s the reason she really left because she couldn’t stand to be around you anymore? Because Elitha told me. She loved you more than she ever loved me, I could tell.” S’s eyes bore into the table making sure to not look at Reyta or C.

“No, I didn’t tell them,” C whispered and peered down at her hand folded on the table.

“Oops, my bad,” Reyta jeered.

“Please,” C sighed, “please I just want to find her. Do you know anything about where she went?”

“No,” Reyta said curtly, “I didn’t want to know for this very reason. But if you really just want to find her,” C nodded vigorously and Reyta leaned forward, “I would suggest looking in place where she might look for you.”

~

The bartender glared at M and T as the stood with their backs leaning against the bar. They had rejected him when he asked their drink order and it was clear he didn’t like someone using his bar as a resting spot instead of a drinking one. Before her, T could see all the cramped little tables with beings squeezed together, leading back into the corner where C and S were talking to Reyta.

T glanced over to M and saw her frowning at the back wall with her arms crossed.

“Okay, what’s going on?” T turned to face her.

“We’re waiting for C?” M jabbed.

“No, you’ve been in a mood since we left Propulsion. So what’s up?” M exhaled out her nose, but didn’t respond, looking away from T. “Fine, don’t tell me, I’m not going to force it out of you, but just so you know you’re being an asshole and it’s kind of annoying.” T turned back to face the room. The stood silently for a moment before they heard a voice to T’s left.  
“Hey there,” T slowly turned her head, keeping her face mostly covered, to see a gigantic being, so tall they could barely fit in the cave. They were almost as wide as they were tall, rippling with muscles covered in green skin and huge lower canines poked out of they mouth over their top lip, “You’re real pretty.”

“You can’t even see my face,” T growled.

“I can tell by your voice,” the being, with difficulty, scooted a little closer to her, “Where you from?”

“Nowhere that concerns you,” T replied flatly as she continued to scan the bar.

“I’m just trying to be nice here,” the being growled.

“I’m not,” T responded brightly and M snorted softly.

“Well, pretty thing like you shouldn’t be standing here all alone.”

“I’m not,” T repeated and tilted her head slightly to indicate M. The being took a minute to take in M, though they couldn’t see much of her face either.

“Oh I get it, you only like scrawny beings. Well maybe try a real being out sometime, I’m better than that tiny little thing.”

“Actually I like most beings, you just don’t happen to be one of them,” T chided and went back to staring at Reyta and her team members.

“T, no ruckus,” M whispered.

“You don’t have to be such a bitch,” the being snarled.

“I wouldn’t have to be if you would just leave me alone,” T growled. Abruptly, T felt the hood being ripped off her head, she ducked, pulling M down with her as a huge fist swung through the empty air they just inhabited.

“Prism!” a voice screamed, “She’s in Prism!”

“Shit!” T hissed.

~

Upon hearing the word ‘Prism’, C and S swung around in their chairs in time to see T pick up a chair and slam it into the side of the head of a Hanoran at the bar. It didn’t do much besides make it angrier, though the knock on the head from standing up too quickly and hitting the ceiling was more effective at knocking it out. Across the room, another being was standing and pointing at T, screaming about Prism. The entire room erupted in sound as beings jumped out of their chairs to avoid the falling Hanoran, run for the exit, or for T.

“And we need to go,” S called, jumping up.

“Thank you,” C hurriedly said to Reyta and followed S. T and M had jumped onto the bar and used it as a clear way to get closer to the exit jumping over glasses and arms reaching out for them. As soon as they reached the end of the bar T jumped down and used her momentum to punch someone in her way. She reached back and grabbed M’s hand so they wouldn’t get separated in the crowd. C and S joined the jostling crowd headed for the exit. T pulled up her hood just as they made it out of the cave with M. She turned to look back and could see C and S extricated themselves from the cave, onto the landing.

“There!” someone shouted and pointed at T. She ran back toward the lift, in the lead with M, S, and C behind her. They were too far from the lift they weren’t going to make it. In front of them she could see a pulley system with basket tied on and used for shuttling items to each floor easily.

“I have an idea!” she called back to her friends and pushed for forward in a burst of speed. When they were a few feet for the pulley system she leapt out and grabbed a basket. It began dropping rapidly and each Prism team member jumped off the landing and grabbed a basket in turn. They hurtled down and when they were close enough T leapt off and landed, rolling on the floor of the cavern. M, C, and S landed and rolled beside her.

“Good idea,” S panted, “But never again.” T bounded up and looked around them. She could see beings chasing them both down the elevator and other pulling the rope back up so they could use the pulley system as she had.

“Ship’s this way!” M called and scrambled to her feet running for it. The women followed and raced down rows of ships passing a few confused beings on the way to their own ship. M reached it first and opened the main hatch. There were a few agonizing moments as the ramp slowly opened. Though it was still lowering, as soon as they could fit through the sides the team squeezed inside. M took the stairs two at a time up to the control room with T and C at her heels. S stayed behind to shut the hatch, gun drawn.

M moved as fast as she could getting the ship ready for take off. The ship began shaking and roaring beneath them. C grabbed the opposite pilot chair and her fingers moved so fast on her holo-screen they could barely see them.

“Okay, let’s go!” M called and hit the throttle. The ship immediately died. “No, no, no!” M called out.

“What happened?” S called climbing into the room.

“Death trap! See I told you! Death trap!” T yelled. She could see beings reach their row and running up the aisle toward the ship.

“Take the helm!” M told S and rushed out of the room, “I’ll tell you when to take off!”

“What?!” S called out, shocked, but M was gone. C continued working on her holo-screen. S looked at T with wide eyes. T just shook her head and shrugged, pointing at the vacant pilot’s chair. S sat down and grabbed the yolk just as the ship jolted back to life.

“Now!” M cried over the comms and S pushed the throttle and pulled the yolk up. The ship jerkily rose in the air and hovered, then jerked upwards again. S was trying to steer it, but it just turned a little sideways making T fall into the right side wall of the control room and C put her leg up so she wouldn’t slip out of the chair.

“I got it, I got it!” M yelled as she sprinted up the stairs into the room and S gladly gave the controls back. M flipped a few switches and the ship stopped bouncing and righted itself just as they were jolted backwards.

“That wasn’t me!” M cried.

“No, they’re shooting at us!” T explained looking out the front window at the crowd, “Go go!” M rocketed the ship up.

“C? Door?” M asked and she dove into the dark tunnel they came in from.

“Yup, almost there,” C replied.

“What do you mean?” T asked, but then she saw the closed large metal doors in front of them. “Oh,” she muttered and moved back to grip C’s chair hard. S stood behind M doing the same thing bracing against anything they might meet on their way out.

“Got it,” C called and the doors in front of them slowly separated.

“Oh no,” T groaned and crouched behind the chair unable to watch.

“I’ve got it,” M said again, “Hold on.” She turned the helm and the ship slowly followed rotating to the left to a point where they were almost sideways and burst through the selperm barely scraping the door’s metal edges. 

“Not done yet,” M threw the throttle forward and with an extra eruption of speed to ship flew off in the direction of Art.

~

“Death trap! Death trap! I told you!” T grumbled. They had flown for enough away from Aruban that M felt it was safe to slow down a little.

“Are we dead?” M snapped back.

“We’re lucky not to be!” T growled back.

“It wasn’t luck, it was me knowing how to fix an engine which is why I’m on this team in the first place,” M threw back.

“Well, real great job fixing it, only to have it break down as we are being chased out!” T yelled.

“Well I’m not the one who started a fight with a Hanoran,” M accused.

“Really, T? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t make a ruckus?” S groaned.

“That thing wasn’t going to leave me alone!” T tried to defend herself.

“You didn’t have to insult them,” M said standing up, beside S so they were both facing T still standing behind C’s chair.

“I’m not going to be nice to a creep hitting on me at a bar,” T said through clenched teeth.

“Normally, I’d agree with you, but when you are trying to lay low in a place where everyone wants to kill you, a little politeness can help!” M shouted. The group fell quiet, tension fell heavy around them. T crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling.

“I am sorry for almost getting us killed,” T mumbled.

“At least, she also got us out,” C finally chimed in, “Jumping on that pulley was a really good idea.”

“Yes, the good thing about T is that even though most of the time, she’s the one that gets us into trouble, she’s also very good at getting us out of it.” S rolled her eyes and sat with her back against the rear wall.

T sighed, and mirrored S on the other side of the doorway, “Please tell me you at least found out something about Elitha. If this was all for nothing I may have to break a couple of those plates in the kitchen.”

“Oh, we found out something,” S said coldly, glaring at C.

“Do you know where she is?” M asked sitting back down, still breathing heavily, but not as angry anymore.

“No,” C shook her head. T looked between C and S with her eyebrows raised.

“What happened?” She blurted out, “S looks like C killed her puppy which knowing C would be utterly shocking.”

“Tell them like you should have told all of us ages ago, C,” S said.

C took a deep shaky breath and said, “M- Elitha left because of me. She told me she fell in love with me and I didn’t love her back. She didn’t want to be around me anymore so she left.” C’s eyes had welled up with tears by the end of her confession. M sighed and leaned back in her chair. T looked surprised for a minute before taking a deep breath in.

“How long ago did Elitha tell you this?” T asked. 

“Um, at least six months ago,” C admitted and tears began rolling down her face. S continued to stare at C.

“So we were working jobs while you two fighting. You should have told us. That wasn’t fair to the rest of us to keep something hidden that affected the team like that. ” S said, but her voice had lost its edge.

“I disagree,” M said and they all turned to her. “That’s very personal. Did affect the performance of the team? I doubt it because you had no idea something had happened. Elitha did her job, then left, and you hired me. Has C’s work performance dropped at all?” 

“No,” T shook her head. M turned to S who quietly shook her head.

“Though,” M looked over to C, “you should have told us when we were hired for this job. That’s relevant and important information. It might be why Elitha started losing races in the first place.”  
C gave a small nod, without looking up and said, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“And we still have no idea where she is?” T asked.

“Tactless,” M whispered under her breath and rolled her eyes. She turned to fiddle with switches on the dash.

“No, we don’t,” S replied, “Reyta said Elitha came to see her, but she wouldn’t give her a ride in case someone came looking for her.”

“Oh, they’re getting smarter,” T joked.

“Reyta suggested we think of places that Elitha would look for- well, me,” C said hesitantly.

“Definitely smarter,” T whispered.

“You're bleeding,” M said to T after turning back around. T scanned her body and saw a cut on her leg just above her ankle dribbling a fair amount of blood on the floor.

“Ah shit,” T muttered as S came over to inspect it, “I thought I felt something slash me when we were running on the bar.”

“It really doesn’t hurt?” M asked.

“Well, now it kinda does,” T covered it with her hand, “now that we’re getting all calm and I noticed it.”

“We should almost be back to Art, come back with me and I’ll heal you,” S told her.

“Speaking of,” M pointed out the front window to where they could see a tiny Art in the distance.

~

Again in one of the old ship’s shuttles, M flew S and T back to Art. When M returned she found C sitting quietly in the second pilot’s chair, staring at her fiddling fingers. Mimicking C’s silence, M sat down and renewed piloting the ship back to Propulsion. She turned knobs and switches on the dash that she didn’t need to waiting for C to say something until she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“Are relationships not allowed in Prism?” M asked.

“What?” C asked as her head spun to face M.

“Like if you had liked Elitha that way; are relationships allowed within Prism?” M asked again, “I know we had to cut all ties to outside relationships, or at least cut down contact on a regular basis, but the guidelines didn’t really say anything about within the team. So if you had wanted to, could you have done that and still be part of the team?”

C studied M for a moment before taking a deep breath, “No.”

“Oh,” M went back to absentmindedly playing with switches.

“Well, I mean, we wouldn’t have been kicked off or anything,” C backtracked, “I don’t think. There really isn’t any hard and fast rule because- I think it’s because past team members wanted us to completely trust each other. We are supposed to be friends and work together and care about each other. That way we can really trust and have each other’s backs. If you feel like you have to hide parts of yourself from your friends because they might throw a rule book at you then can you really trust them?”

“That makes sense,” M nodded.

“So, I don’t see why you can’t have a relationship with another team member,” C shrugged, “Like you said, if it doesn’t affect how the team functions then it’s not a problem.”

“And I’m guessing Elitha knew the way she felt might start to affect the team and that’s why she left,” M prompted.

“And personal reasons,” C shook her head, “She said she thought my answer would be different. She thought I loved her back.”

“But she knew you don’t like women, right?” M asked.

“Yeah, but she thought that she was different. She said since we were so close-” C tried to find the words to continue, “I just really care for my friends, that’s the type of being I am. For some reason sometimes my friends think that means I have romantic feelings for them. And she got so mad.”

“And from the way you described Elitha’s life, it sounds like she might not have had a friend like that before,” M finished for her and C nodded. “Speaking of trusting your teammates,” M continued cautiously, “Can I ask why you didn’t tell T and S?”

“I was going to. I just couldn’t find the right way to say it,” C sighed, “I felt ashamed. I had hurt my best friend to the point where she had to leave and I felt miserable. I wasn’t sure how to navigate that. Besides I don’t think they’ve been as close to past members as I was with M- or Elitha. I mean, I’m close with each of them in their own way.”

C leaned forward in the chair and rubbed her hands together examining her long fingers. “I know they miss past members. They talk about them sometimes, but they just as easily cut them off when they left. It was so hard to cut Elitha off and honestly, if I had known her real name, I would have kept tabs on her. I even tried looking up racing companies, but there are so many in the galaxy and what if she wasn’t even in this galaxy anymore? I didn’t know where to start.”

M nodded, “I understand.” She wasn’t fiddling with the dash anymore, but instead leaning forward on her own chair listening intently to C’s story.

“Thank you,” C said.

“For what?” M cocked her head, a little taken aback.

“For listening,” C grinned, “It’s nice telling this to someone who didn’t know her.”

“I’m happy to,” M assured her, “I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell T and S.”

“Yeah,” C chuckled, “Though S would probably just try and fix everything herself. And T… actually T is pretty good at helping you talk through stuff.”

M laughed, “I would not have guessed that. When it comes to feelings she just seems to get kind of mad.”

C smirked, “It’s not actually mad. It’s her way of panicking, once she feels comfortable with you, she’s a lot calmer. When it comes to someone else’s feelings, she’s actually very insightful. As long you let her know it’s a serious talk, not a joking one.” The two women lapsed into a comfortable silence for a moment until M held up a finger to C.

“What if Elitha did the same thing you did?” M suggested.

“Not tell T and S? She didn’t tell them, obviously,” C said slowly, not following M’s train of thought.

“No, you said you tried to look up racing companies to find her, but there were too many you wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Yeah, oh,” C caught on to what M was working toward, “You think she might have tried to find Prism?”

“Yeah, but instead of searching just racing companies, she would have had to search for just crimes throughout this entire galaxy.”

“Or others.”

M sat up, “Really? We travel to different galaxies sometimes?”

“Rarely, but yeah,” C smiled.

“Cool,” M whispered excitedly, “Anyway, she might have just retraced her steps.”

“What?”

“She could have gone to place she last saw you.”

“Quad 9 station,” C whispered, her large eyes growing even wider, “You really think she would have gone there?”

“T said it,” M pointed out, “It’s central and she could go anywhere from there. Even if she couldn’t find where you are, she has easy access to anywhere in the galaxy if she’s not spotted by The Authority. Though I doubt they would find her, there’s so many beings there I’m sure she could blend in just as easily as we did in Aruban.”

“I mean, we were caught on Aruban, but I get it. And only one way to find out,” C activated her holo-screen and began opening and shuffling through multiple applications, settling in for working through their trip back to Propulsion.

~

The Quadent 9 Station started as one large circle that beings added intersecting circles to so many times that it created a large sphere made up of hundreds of interconnecting hallways in the middle of space. M flew Art Two to the space station looking for one of the thousands of hatches to connect to along all the sides of the circle.

“We’re almost there,” S called back to C and T. The latter was sleeping since they hadn’t gotten much sleep during their on the old ship they had given back to Propulsion. C, however, was staring hopefully at her holo-screen. She had set up a hack and scan of Quad 9 station’s surveillance footage of the past few days. So far the search was unsuccessful. She could hear T’s and S’s doubts about Elitha being at the station running through her head over and over again. They said how it was too crowded, someone would have seen her. Even if she had gone there in the first place she probably would have left by now. C could feel all their doubts piling onto her own like a great weight pushing down on her chest. It was one place though, one place they could look and if she wasn’t here they would come up with a new plan.

“Any hits off the footage?” S asked.

“Not yet,” C sighed.

“Could you wake up T please?” S asked. C turned to her sleeping friend. T’s head was leaned far back with her mouth slightly open. C grinned and poked her in the stomach. T jumped as high as her restraints allowed. 

“Sleep well?” M asked chuckling and T smiled and nodded.

“Did you come up with any semblance of a plan?” S asked.

“Sure, re-con,” T muttered as she rubbed her eyes.

“Re-con?” S sighed.

“Yeah, we don’t know if she’s here, right?” T looked at C who nodded, “So, re-con.”

“That’s it?” S asked.

“Well, let’s look at it this way, Elitha knows all our plans, all our moves, and in what order we do them in. No matter what, we’ve got to start with re-con, she knows that. As soon as we know what’s going on and I’m more awake, that’s when I’ll come up with an ingenious plan of attack,” T pointed out. 

“All right then,” S nodded.

“Found one,” M called.

“A plan?” T asked looking confused.

“An empty hatch,” M scoffed, but grinned.

“That makes more sense,” T sighed.

“Plan of attack is just a figure of speech right?” C said quietly.

“What?” T turned toward the woman next to her.

“You don’t actually plan on attacking her right?” C asked.

“I mean if she runs…” T said slowly, “Like any other job. We won’t purposely hurt her, but we’ll do what we need to to catch her.”

“I could talk to her,” C suggested, “I could try and get her to turn herself in.”

“You think that would work?” T asked dubiously.

C shrugged, “She came here for me, right?”

T gave C a weak smile, “We don’t even know if she’s here. We don’t even know if she wants to see you. If you find her and try to talk, she could bolt.” T set her hand on C’s knee and gave a little squeeze. “Like I said she knows us and we know her. It’s better if we keep it a surprise. You can talk to her once we get her.” C stared at her holo-screen and gave a small nod as M connected to the side of the space station.

“Comms on?” S asked and the women nodded, “All right. Let’s split up. If you see anything, call us. C, if the cameras pick up something, then call us. We’ll meet back here so T can tell us the best action plan.”

The women nodded again and stood. T hit the button to open the side door. S, C, and T lifted the hood on the jackets they were wearing to partially obscure their faces. T looked over to M when she didn’t follow suit, but she just shrugged in response and said, “Elitha doesn’t know my face.”

“Oh, true,” T smiled back. The women walk out of Art Two, through an airlock, emerging into a hallway the size of a gymnasium. Beings milled all around, bustling as they passed. The team exchanged final glances before turning in separate directions to search.

~

C glanced down to her watch for what felt like the millionth time that day. The team had separated over twenty minutes ago and C had discovered no clue that pointed toward Elitha. Her watch hadn’t reported anything, and none of her team members checked in yet. C sighed and continued to push through the busy beings around her.

She emerged from the large corridor into a massive open area. Beings were sitting on benches around gardens with trees or sitting at little tables laughing and talking. Little beings from all over the galaxy were chasing each other and giggling as their parents looked on. C stopped and looked over this expansive area that could have fit at least two Aruban inside of it. She sighed and looked up at the domed ceiling that revealed the winding halls of the space station above blocking out the empty space beyond so that it could only peek through the gaps in between. They might have to search all of that if her watch never responded with a positive identification of Elitha. Unless she already left, if she even came here in the first place.

C plopped down on an empty bench and dropped her head into her hands. She closed her eyes and covered her ears. The noise from so many beings and the sight of them walking around only added to the overwhelming task ahead of them and she just needed to shut them out for awhile. With any other job it was easy to ignore everyone around her and focus at the task at hand, but when she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to find Elitha, it was too much. Either find her friend and turn her in, or-

“Well, there really isn’t an ‘or’ is there?” C thought to herself. As though in response, her watch pinged. She pulled it to read the little screen “One facial match”. C took a deep breath as she activated the holo-screen and opened the search program. A clip of video began playing. C could see herself, sitting on the bench from a high angle up above. Confused, she looked at the timestamp of the clip and it matched the real time.

“What the-” C whispered and then froze. Behind her in the clip she could see a figure with flaming red hair staring at the back of her head. C spun around in shock to see her friend in the flesh.  
“M?” C breathed. Elitha pulled a hood up to obscure her face and walk away. C jumped to her feet and followed. The crowd in the atrium made it difficult to catch up, but she could still see the hooded figure walking a few yards ahead. She should call for the team. She should, but maybe if she could just talk to Elitha.

The hooded figure snapped to the left and C almost tripped over some younger beings playing to pursue. Apologizing for knocking over their game, C looked up just in time to see Elitha duck down a smaller hallway. She ran to catch up, pushing past beings in her haste. When she reached the smaller hallway, she saw Elitha duck through a door halfway down. Now was her chance. She could call the team, stake out the room, wait for them to arrive and they could all go in together. Instead, C switched off her comm.

She walked up to the room and knocked. The door separated down the middle and slid open with a soft woosh. C could see a sparse room with a large window as she stepped inside, but no Elitha. The doors closed behind her and she turned to see Elitha, with her hood pulled down, standing in a corner, waiting.

“M,” C greeted her quietly, but then couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Come on C, you know my real name by now,” Elitha sighed and walked toward her.

C nodded, “Elitha.” The other woman smiled and gave C a hug. C instinctively gave one back, but after a moment pulled away.

“I was doing a search on the cameras,” C started.

“I figured. That’s why I pulled my hood down,” Elitha nodded again, “So, you just guessed I was here, but the first time you saw me was on camera was in the atrium?”

C nodded, “We were hired to find you.”

“Yeah I figured that,” Elitha sighed again and walked over to the window.

“What happened?” C asked, following her, “They said you were losing races, you don’t lose.”

Elitha didn’t answer for a moment. She stared out the window or down at her hands and kept opening and closing her mouth as though she wasn’t sure what to say. Finally, her shoulders dropped as though she lost a battle with herself and took a deep breath.

“I got lonely,” Elitha admitted , “I missed you so much. I didn’t have any friends. I missed Art and S and even T sometimes. I just felt so alone all the time. I stopped liking everything around me because I was so miserable, even flying. So that’s why I started losing. It wasn’t on purpose, I just couldn’t get invested in it anymore.”

C sighed and closed her eyes, “Elitha, I’m so sorry.”

“Then I lost that last race,” the red haired woman continued, dropping to her knees and sitting in front of the window “And Mr. Simpkins told me how much money I owed the company. I didn’t have it and I was so depressed so... I just left. I thought maybe if I could find you, I could feel better. So I came here.”

C shook her head and knealt down next to her friend, “Elitha, I understand, but you shouldn’t have run. You’re in so much more trouble now.”

“It’s the only thing I know to do,” Elitha shrugged and lifted her head up toward C, “I’m used to it. That’s why I worked so well in the underground races and with Prism, going under the radar, not facing anything head on unless I know what I’m up against. That’s how I work. That’s why I left-” she paused and took a deep breath, “That’s why I left Prism. I didn’t want to face you again, head on, after what I told you. I’ve gotten so good at running away from my problems.”

“They just caught up to you,” C told her, “We’re all here, the team is here.” Elitha seemed to pull herself back together, squaring her shoulders, and rolled her eyes.

“Yes, and I’m sure before you walked in here you commed them and told them where I was. Let me guess, T is just outside the door, ready to attack if I escape. S is back in the atrium to make sure no one gets hurt and your new M, whoever she is, is getting Art Two ready. Do you even have a new M yet?” As she spoke her tone had grown more resentful and C felt a deep pang of sadness for her.

“Yeah, we do,” she nodded.

“Does she like The Tube?” Elitha asked, her voice cracking a little.

“Yeah, she thinks it’s brilliant,” C put her hand on Elitha’s shoulder. Elitha tensed, but didn’t try to remove it.

“You’re wrong,” C told her, “I didn’t the call the others. They have no idea I found you.”

“Why?” Elitha asked, her forehead crumpling with the question.

“I may not love you like you wanted, but I still love you as my friend,” C told her, “T said we should treat this like any other job, but I can’t. I needed to talk to you first, needed to see if maybe you would come back with me as my friend.”

“You’re so good, I knew it. I knew if I just found you, you would help me,” Elitha reached out a hand and took C’s.

“Of course, we can go to Simpkins and maybe work out a deal.”

“What? No, he would not go for that. It’s money or nothing,” Elitha shook her head.

“He’s seems like he cares about you, maybe he would want to deal,” C suggested.

“He called you,” Elitha snapped, “He called Prism without a second thought, without knowing I used to be on the team. He doesn’t want to deal, he wants his money and to send me to jail. I thought- I thought you would help me. This isn’t helping,” Elitha stood up and C followed suit. 

“Elitha, I’m trying, I’m trying to find this best solution for everyone here.”

“Everything you just suggested wouldn’t help me. They’d help you. Haven’t you hurt me enough already?”

“That’s not fair,” C’s eyes welled up.

You said the team has no idea I’m here.”

“N-no,” C grew nervous at what path Elitha’s thoughts might be on now, “We went to see Reyta, she told me to guess where you might go to find me, this was the only place we could think of.”  
“This was the last place I saw you,” Elitha nodded, “I thought I could track you down you’d help me get away. I didn’t think Simpkins would hire you to come after me.”

C breath caught in her chest, and she felt her toes go numb, she guessed where Elitha might be going with this, “Don’t do this Elitha, don’t run again. I can’t help you escape, but I can help you go back, in a way where no one gets hurt. I didn’t even bring my gun! This is just re-con right now. We can go back.” C unzipped her jacket to prove she didn’t have a weapon on her. She was inching toward her friend, arms out, eyes begging. Elitha smiled and nodded again, but then shook her head.

“You’re so good,” she repeated in a whisper and before C could flinch Elitha whipped a gun out from inside her jacket.

“No!” C shouted as Elitha aimed and shot at her. C ducked and rolled out of the way, which gave Elitha time to run out the door toward the atrium, pulling her hood up as she ran. C sprang up from the ground followed out the door, practically slipping on the ground as she turned down the hallway. She could see Elitha sprinting ahead of her into the atrium, gun still in her hand. Beings who noticed the gun screamed and stumbled out of her way. C ran full tilt after her, but Elitha was so far ahead and beings running frantically away from the gun were slowing her down.  
C suddenly saw T bound through the crowd of beings in front of Elitha, and whip out a collapsible baton. Before Elitha could shoot her or deviate from her path, T swung and the baton slammed into Elitha’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her onto her back, wheezing. The gun flew out of her hand and skittered across the floor. C ran forward, grabbing it, and turning it on Elitha as S and M ran up behind T. T collapsed her baton, stuck it in her boot and bent over Elitha so she could bind her wrists behind her back. She looked up to C, the gun still trained on Elitha.

“Comm working?” T asked, raising her eyebrows. C swallowed and reached up to her ear, switching it back on.

“It is now,” C admitted. T sighed and pulled Elitha to her feet who was still trying to catch her breath.

“Oh, you’re fine Elitha,” T chided, “Long time no see, how ya been?”

“T, don’t tease,” S groaned.

“Out of the way! Step back!” a voice cried out. Prism looked over to see where it was coming from and found Quad 9 security pushing their way through the crowd of onlookers that had built up around the 5 women. They broke through the edge of the circle and surveyed them with disapproving looks.

“What is the meaning of this?” One human being asked marching up to T, “Let go of that being!”

“Can’t do that. I’m a bounty hunter, scan me and it will prove it,” The officer scanned her and their holo-screen blossomed to life. Just like back on Artanger their screen showed read “Prism: Identity Classified”, but showed T’s picture this time.

“Prism?” The officer asked.

“Yup, and if you want to check,” T swung Elitha around to face the officer, “She’s a wanted being.” The officer scanned Elitha and her wanted poster materialized on their holo-screen immediately.

“You had to capture her in the middle of our atrium with families all around?” The officer snapped.

“Officer, please,” S stepped forward, “No one was hurt, my colleagues made sure of that. If you let us go, we will immediately leave the station with no harm done.” The officer scowled at the team, but nodded and moved aside so they could pass.

“I am marking your scan,” they told T, “If I get word you’re in this station I’m keeping a close eye on you.”

“Hope you do,” T winked and then led a dazed Elitha past the glowering officer as S and M followed eyes rolling almost in unison. C switched the safety on the gun and tucked it in the back of her pants before shuffling along behind them.

~

As soon as the team and Elitha climbed back onto Art Two and strapped their prisoner into a seat, S injected her with a sedative so she couldn’t try to escape in such close quarters or argue on the way back to Art. When they arrived at the ship, S pulled out one of her collapsible, floating stretchers so that she and T could escort Elitha up to the cell. With Elitha settled in, they took the lift up to the common area to find C and M quietly sitting on one of the couches. S took a seat in her chair, but T stood quietly off to the side and folded her arms. No one said anything until C broke the silence.

“You turned on my tracker, didn’t you?” she asked. She sat on the edge of the couch, elbows rested on her legs with her hands folded between them and stared at the floor.

“Yup,” T responded stoically, “When we couldn’t reach you.”

C nodded, “I’m sorry, I just, I really thought she would listen to me.”

“T told you she wouldn’t,” S said.

“I know, I just- I had to try,” C sighed.

“She bolted, you’re lucky we were so close, someone could have been hurt,” T said.

“I know!” C snapped and the room fell quiet.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time for this,” M said. T and S looked at one another and S stood.

“I’m going to tell Jesper we have her,” S said and she walked out of the common room toward her bedroom. T strode over to the lift, before climbing on she turned back and took a deep breath.

“Don’t go see her,” she told C, “I’m sorry, but don’t.” Then she disappeared behind the door.

“Are you okay?” M asked. C put her head in her hands.

“She shot at me,” C whispered.

“I’m sorry,” M rubbed C’s back a few times.

“She was just going to run away again. I offered to help, but she didn’t care. She blamed me. She told me I’d hurt her enough already, like I owed her.”

“Sometimes beings who don’t see any hope from themselves, will do anything to push their guilt onto others,” M said, “They can’t see another way out.”

C nodded silently, “You’d think T expects me to let her out. Help her escape.”

“I promise you she does not think that. She just doesn’t you to get hurt even more,” M defended.

“All while I was talking to her I was trying to convince her to come back with us, to talk to Simpkins, to work this out, but-” C sat up and slouched back on the couch, “Elitha didn’t believe me. That’s why she ran.” 

“I’m sorry,” M said again.

“She’ll never forgive me,” C whispered.

“No, probably not,” M nodded, “But you can’t hate yourself for that. She broke the law. It’s your job to uphold that. You made the right decision.”

“Even though I didn’t include you all and she almost got away?” C asked.

“We would have found her,” M reassured her, “T and S know that and they know why you what you did. It’ll be okay.”

“I hope you’re right,” C sighed, “I’m going to go to bed. I’m exhausted.” She rose to her feet. “Thanks for understanding.”

M gave her a sad smile and said, “No problem.” M watched C leave the common room and turn into the hallway before standing up and moving through doors to the lift.

“Gym please.” The lift descended and opened. Just as she thought M found T here. Though unexpectedly, just sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall. T looked up when she heard the doors and gave M a small smile.

“She okay?” T asked.

“No,” M sighed and walked over to sit next to her team member.

“Yeah, this sucks.”

“Yeah.” They sat for a moment, neither of them speaking. M finally drew in a deep breath, “You were right. I upset, back at Aruban. It’s what you said about Elitha, about her collecting ammo on you.” T turned to look at M, but the human was staring at the ceiling.

“I wasn’t trying to be mean, it’s honestly what’s she’s like.”

“No, I believe you, especially with what C said just now, but that’s not…” M paused, “That’s not what was bothering me.”

“Do you want to tell me?”

M nodded and took another deep breath, “I knew someone like that, but instead of just a feeling, they actually acted on it. They took everything I said and used it against me. Sometimes for years and manipulating me the whole time and I couldn’t see it until I was completely lost in it.” T’s lips separated into a small ‘O’ and eyebrows drew together in concern. M stayed staring at the ceiling.

“They made me feel like expressing any sort of feeling, letting anyone know that I cared about anything would make me lesser. It’d be giving someone the tools to exploit me and they could use that feeling to turn me into nothing if they had the chance.”

“M, I-” T hesitated, turning her body fully in M’s direction, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s been a long time. I’m doing better, but after how you described Elitha I just got stuck in all these old memories and I couldn’t pull myself out of it. And I just saw C in the same space as me, and it made me so angry at Elitha. I took it out on all of you instead.” M finally turned to look at T, her eyes shiny with held back tears. T reached out a hand and lightly touched M’s arm.

“M, those beings, they are trash. They are absolute trash, and they know it so they push it on others to make them feel just as terrible. They aren’t worth a second thought.”

“I know,” M gave a small smile, “I know that. It’s just harder to get rid of the initial feeling.”

“I understand,” T gave her a reassuring smile, “And just so you know, if you ever want to tell me anything, ever, I will never make you feel like that. Ever. No one here would. I swear.”

M smiled back and nodded, “I know.”

~

The next morning they reported to Simpkins that Elitha had been caught. He transferred their fee over while raining thanks on them before Prism met up with Jesper’s Authority ship and transferred the prisoner over. C watched quietly from the security footage in her library. She hadn’t even been down to the cells to say goodbye. As she watched Art fly away from the Authority ship, she had a horrible sinking feeling that that was the last time she was going to see Elitha.

Several hours later, Elitha sat in a windowless cell picking at her cuticles when she heard the door to the cell block open. She didn’t bother to look. If she didn’t see them then it felt like they couldn’t see her and she could keep feeling invisible.

“I have a few beings I think you’ll like today,” she heard a male being say to someone.

“I certainly hope so, Jesper,” said another voice, “That Travian you gave us didn’t last long.”

“This time I have beings from Flicabar, Bellat, Manergon,” Jesper said.

“Oh Manergon, interesting,” said the second voice. Elitha sat up now, the voices were getting closer. The being from Manergon was her, so who was this Jesper giving her to? They couldn’t be at the Authority prison yet, they hadn’t been traveling long enough.

“Yes, that one will do,” the voices drew even nearer moving down the cell block. They must be looking at the other prisoners, “We’ve had a Bellatian before and they weren’t quite what we were looking for, but they had a few good results, I have a few new tests to put this one through. And ah,” the beings finally reached Elitha’s cell. She recognized Jesper, the Authority officer from her time working with Prism, and with him came a being with yellow skin and large round eyes set atop antennae on their head. She stood up.

“The Manergon,” the yellow skinned being observed.

“This one’s special so I saved her for last,” Jesper said, he paused for a moment, letting anticipation build, “She used to work with Prism.” The being’s eyes lit up and they drew closer to the bars of the cell.

“Prism? Oh yes, Maion will be very pleased with this one,” the being hissed.

“Maion?” Elitha asked, “As in with Infinity?” She glared at Jesper, “What is this? What do you mean you’re giving us to this shithead?”

“That’s impolite,” the being snapped, “Have them taken to my ship and you will get a transfer within the hour.” The being started to leave. Elitha rushed to the bars.

“You can’t do this! We aren’t something you can just give away! We are living beings!” She screamed at the back of the yellow head. She rounded on Jesper, “What do you think you’re doing? Selling prisoners to Infinity? What are they going to do to us?”

“No idea,” Jesper shrugged.

“You are making such a big mistake,” Elitha growled, “I am a former Prism member. My friends will find out and come after me.”

Jesper laughed, “They turned you in. And they haven’t found anything about this, not even close.” He quickly pulled out his gun and shot Elitha. She fell to the floor unconscious, but still breathing. “And who’s going to tell ‘em?” He chuckled as he moved down the cellblock shooting the other two prisoners in turn and gesturing to some officers to collect the unconscious beings as he left the cellblock behind.


	5. Prism Part 5- Interfusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 5: Interfusion
> 
> CW: virus, illness, sickness, eugenics
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

S closed and locked the door of her quarters. She had checked the common area and it looked like her team members were on Art’s lower levels or in their rooms, but she still didn’t want anyone knocking on her door and surprising her. Activating her holo-screen, she sat down at her desk and opened the video comm. In the contacts she hit a name, “Deteria”. A spinning circle blossomed on the screen as S waited.

“Mommy!” a severe close up on the face young being, no older than 7, replaced the spinning circle on the screen and S grinned. The girl backed away up grinning back, her dark skin and eyes mirrored her mother’s.

“Hey honey! How are you?” S asked.

“Good, Dad and I rode land cruisers today!” The little girl lowered her voice, “But he told me not to tell you that.”

“Then why did you tell me?” S asked. Deteria shrugged and gave sheepish smile.

“I don’t know,” she mumbled and giggled as a man with dark maroon skin appeared on the screen.

“She told you didn’t she?” he asked.

“You took her on a land cruiser,” S frowned.

“She was perfectly safe,” he said as he picked up a giggling Deteria and set her on his lap as he sat in front of the screen. “She has the same attraction for fast moving vehicles as you do.”

“Deteria, honey, can you give your dad and I a minute to talk?” S asked and her daughter’s face fell.

“Are you mad?” the little girl asked quietly.

“No, don’t worry, I’ll see you again in a minute,” S smiled, reassuring her. The girl hopped off her father’s lap and walked out of screen. S’s smile vanished.

“You’re mad,” the man said after a moment.

“Well yes, Genic, you took her on something that is extremely dangerous and we both agreed that she should wait until she was a little older before she rode one.”

“It was a short ride, she was strapped in tight. She couldn’t have been hurt,” Genic scoffed, “We weren’t even going that fast.”

“You’re a good father, I know that, and though I’m not with her most of the time, I would like to be included in decisions about her life. I thought I was. We may not be together anymore, but we still have to work together to take care of her,” S protested.

Genic sighed, “Sometimes it does just feel like I’m the only one here. She keeps asking if you’ll be back for her birthday.”

“I don’t know yet. I try and call whenever I can,” S softened her tone.

“That’s not always enough,” Genic pointed out.

S set her mouth in a hard line, “Do you need anything? Money?”

“No we’re fine,” Genic replied in the same hard tone.

S sighed, “Bring her back please?”

“Deteria! Come back here, baby,” Genic called out and S could hear her little feet running before she pounced on her dad and despite her annoyance with Genic, S grinned again.

True to Genic’s word, Deteria asked, “Mommy, when are you coming home?”

“Well remember honey, I am at home, on the ship in space, but I will come see you as soon as I can, okay?” S explained.

“Can I visit you?” Deteria asked excitedly.

“No, it’s too dangerous, but I promise I will come to you and we’ll do whatever else you want to do,” S beamed at Deteria.

“We can go on land cruisers?” Deteria shouted excitedly.

S paused, “We can do whatever you want besides those two things. I cross my heart.” S looked at the time and her face fell a little. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go to work.”

Deteria’s face fell too, “You have to?”

“Yes, but I’ll call you again very soon. I love you,” S blew a kiss at the screen as Deteria returned the statement and hugged the screen on her end. S pressed the button to end the call and leaned back in her chair frowning.

After a moment she asked, “Art, where’s the team?”

“C is in the library and M and T are down in the gym,” Art’s cool voice replied. S stood, deactivating the holo-screen and left the room.

~

T threw a punch into the sand bag hanging from the ceiling of the gym. Her gloved fist snapped back and she bounced around the bag for a moment before throwing another set of punches into the bag. She heard the door of the lift slide open behind her. Turning, she saw M walk in with her hair pulled back, boxing gloves, and workout clothes.

“Hey, mind if I join you?” M asked when she saw T.

“No, go ahead,” T took off one of her gloves and wiped sweat out of her eyes as she got a drink of water, “Do you want to spar?”

“Oh, sure,” M responded. She glanced down to T’s legs. She hadn’t seen her teammate in anything, but pants before. In her workout shorts, M could see the blue, wavy lines that matched T’s arms, but also a jagged scar that wrapped all around her upper right leg. M quickly looked away before T could notice her looking, but T was looking at the ceiling.

“Art, could you raise the bag please?” T asked as M stretched. The sandbag disappeared into a hole in the ceiling which slid shut and left the gym empty for the women.

“Mind going slow while I warm up?” M asked, moving into her fight stance.

“Sounds like a plan,” T grinned as she stood in her own stance.

“See, that grin just looks evil,” M joked.

T laughed, “Ready?” M nodded and they began moving around each other looking for a moment to strike. T faked a headshot with her left and when M moved to block she snapped in a body shot.

“You call that slow?” M teased.

“Yes,” T said seriously, “Really? Slower?”

“Please,” M chuckled, “Just for a minute.” T nodded and they began circling again. They traded a few punches back and forth for a few minutes which they each easily blocked. The tension and anticipation between them began to slowly build until M moved in for a straight headshot with her right hand, a hook to T’s body with her left, and then a overhand punch to the side of T’s head as she circled to her right. T barely had time to block each before she swiveled to face M again with an excited expression on her face.

“You warmed up then?” T asked. M nodded and grinned back. They continued moving around each other exchanging punches that were either blocked or landed.

“Where’d you learn to fight?” T asked in between an exchange.

“Back home,” M replied.

“That’s vague,” T laughed.

“Yeah, it is,” M smirked. T raised her eyebrows and she stepped in and served a few punches that M blocked before T landed a kick into M’s left side.

“Nice,” M called out as she backed up and circled around her opponent, “Sorry for sounding vague, I just mean that- I sort of, taught myself.”

“Well you had a good teacher,” T grinned. M threw a few punches which T blocked. The pace of their sparring began to pick up. The women were soon breathing heavy and landing a few more punches than before. M threw an overhand punch while circling T again, but this time T’s instinct kicked in and she countered swinging her elbow out with hit M across the forehead as she moved around T. M cried out and pressed her glove to her forehead. T realized what she’d done and dropped out of ‘fight mode’.

“Oh, my bad, are you okay?” T asked standing straight, and walking towards M. Before T could see if M was all right, M lowered and snapped a punch into T’s stomach. T grabbed her stomach and stepped back, more surprised than hurt. M stood with a wide smile.

“Oh that was sneaky!” T cried out while laughing, “I didn’t peg you as a sneaky fighter!”

“Only when I’m fighting a sneaky fighter,” M joshed, rubbing her forehead again “Take 5?” T nodded and walked over to her water taking a long swig. M joined her, asking for her own bottle from Art and the stood taking a moment to rehydrate. In the quiet, M couldn’t help, but glancing down at the scar again.

“Like my battle scar?” T teased.

“I just- I mean- I didn’t mean to-” M looked away again.

“Relax,” T rolled her eyes, smiling, “It’s not like it’s hard to miss.” M glanced back to the scar and then up to T’s face. T stared at M with a sly smile as though daring her to ask about it as she sat against the wall and leaned back.

“You want me to ask, don’t you?” M smirked.

“Do you want to ask?” T baited.

“This is like your drinking story, isn’t it?” M raised one of her eyebrows and deepened her smirk, “A heroic tale you tell beings at bars when you’re trying to impress them and maybe even hit on them just a little bit?”

T’s knowing smile twitched a little, and her eyes flicked down, but she resumed her flippant attitude instantly, “Uh no, good guess though.” T took another swig of water.

M realizing she may have hit a sore spot dropped her smirk and asked, “Is it really a battle scar?”

“Nope,” T shook her head.

“How’d you get it?” M asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

T shrugged, “When I was 7 a portal decided it really liked my leg and wanted to keep it.”

“A- a portal?” M stuttered, “Didn’t the universe as a whole ban portals as transportation over 30 earth years ago due to it being incredibly dangerous? You’re not that old.”

“You’d be surprised, I’m actually 50. Being half Ongori, I age differently,” T said as she drank a sip of water and sat down with her back against the wall.

M paused for a moment before saying, “No you don’t. I may not know a lot of species types, but I do know Ongori age at almost the same rate as humans. You can just take more wear and tear.”

T looked amused, “You’re right, I was kidding.”

“So how did you get the scar?” M asked sitting down next to T.

“Oh no, I wasn’t kidding about that. It was a portal. You’re right, 30 years ago the universe banned portals as intergalactic travel, but for about 10 years after that they were used on a couple planets as on-planet transportation pretty commonly, including Ongoro.”

“So a portal tried to rip off your leg?” M asked, now openly staring at the scar.

“Yup, portals are kinda weird and can start fluctuating mid-trip sometimes. A lot of beings lost limbs, or died, or just straight up disappeared, but not enough to ban it outright for awhile. I was one of the lucky few that came out the other side with all my limbs, just one of them was sort of hanging on by a thread.”

“Okay,” M said wearily, quickly looking away.

“Sorry. Too gory?” T beamed over at M.

“Just a tad,” M gave a dry smile back and T laughed. They sat in silence, looking at the other for a moment enjoying the after waves of humor. M could feel the heat that lingered between them as they so close. Finally M took a deep breath and said, “So do you-”

The lift doors opened and S appeared, “Hey, C’s already down in the hangar. Get cleaned up, we’re almost at Shibero. Hangar please, Art.” The lift doors closed and T hopped to her feet and held her hand out to M.

“Finish this another time?” T asked.

“Definitely.” M took T’s hand and stood.

“Good, next time I won’t go so easy on you,” T said as they walked to the lift.

“That was easy?!” M scoffed and T laughed.

~

“Prism! Welcome!” A being 6 feet tall, covered in yellow fur and a snout for a nose and mouth greeted the women as they walked into an office labeled “Dr. Ronbart Snreg: Lead Virologist” on the planet, Shibero.

“Dr. Snreg, good to see you again,” S said. She walked over to press the palm of her hand to the palm of Dr. Snreg’s paw which was the traditional for their species instead of a handshake.

“I hear you have another shipment for us to transport,” T started, repeating the hand to paw greeting.

“Yes, it’s only one case this time, extremely delicate as it’s the only batch we have at the moment. Oh, new member?” They pressed their paw with C and had finally reached M.

“Yes, M,” she responded and held up her hand to which Dr. Snreg pressed their paw.

“I figured that what I should call you. Welcome, let me get the case,” Dr. Snreg pranced on all fours over to a door guarded by a scanner. They pressed their nose to it and the door beeped and opened. The being disappeared inside and came out moments later carrying a case in their mouth. They set it on a desk and the women crowded around it.

“It’s the very latest in a cure we are developing for the plague on Docanmer,” Dr. Snreg explained.

C pulled some gloves on, “Do you mind? I need to check the case, new security protocol.”

“Understandable, just be careful,” Dr. Snreg nodded. C flipped up the clasps and slowly opened the lid of the case. Nestled in a cooling gel was a small vial of a blue colored liquid. S walked up behind C and inspected the vial and the case before nodding to her team.

“Looks good, is it going to Docanmer?” S asked closing it back up.

“No it’s going to another research facility on Agilmar,” Dr. Snreg replied, “Few more tests to run it through before it goes for help Docanmer.”

“We’ll get it there,” M smiled up at the doctor.

~

“So another job where we just sit around and do nothing for a few days?” M joked as she guided Art Two off the ground of Shibero.

“Very funny,” S deadpanned next to her while she held the case in her lap.

“Yeah, we shouldn’t joke about not doing anything on these transport jobs,” T said and everyone, except M, who was concentrating on guiding Art Two through the air traffic of Shibero and out of the planet’s atmosphere, turned to stare at T in amazement.

“Excuse me?” C asked.

“Yeah, I mean, on the last transport job, Art tried to kill us, so who knows what could happen this time,” T grinned at her morbid joke. M and C laughed and S grinned in spite of her obvious eye roll. S activated her holo-screen.

“I’m going to get started on our route and advising Agilmar of our arrival time,” she told the team. In front of them Art loomed in the black expanse.

“Really S? We’ll be back home in two seconds, you can’t take a couple minutes to just relax and hang out?” T asked.

“If I get everything done, then I can have all the time in the universe to hang out. Instead of short little bursts throughout the day,” S replied typing on her screen. M pressed a button on the dash and the hangar wall on Art began opening. She guided Art Two toward the selperm in the opening. Just as the nose of the shuttle hit the selperm an alarm went off on the dash and Mini Art halted.

“What is that?” M asked, but T was already up and moving to the selperm belts.

“That the intruder alarm,” S explained as she grabbed the two belts that T handed her, “If there are more beings on the ship than we left with and we didn’t update the manifest on the way back then it will sound an alarm to make sure no one, but us gets on the ship. Here put this on,” S handed the other selperm belt to M as she wrapped the other around her waist. 

“Why do I need this?” M asked taking it and copying S, buckling around herself.

“In case we need to open a door to get rid of the intruder,” S explained clutching the case.

M looked to the back of the ship where T and C were putting their own belts on. T walked over to the weapons case in the back of the shuttle and pulled out three plasma guns. She passed one to C and walked back to the front to hand one to S.

“Put this in the weapons lock up,” S handed the case to M and took the gun from T. The three women began prepping the weapons as M walked back to the case.

“Where could someone even hide in here?” M asked. As though the being took that has their cue, one of the ceiling panels burst in and a human looking being in a spacesuit leapt down and landed on top on M. She yelled as they both landed on the ground and the case dropped from her hands. The other three women aimed and fired their weapons, but the being’s suit seemed to be made of a material where the beams just bounced back. The women ducked and the plasma hit the sides of the ship leaving burn marks.

“Don’t shoot!” T cried. M was scrambling over to the case just a few feet away while the being still laid on top of her, scrambling after it as well. C made it over to them first and tried to pull them off M, but the being threw a small device at her that let of a burst of energy. C, S, and T all flew back and slammed into the glass window at the front. They fell to the floor in a pile of limbs not sure who was on top of who. M finally got hold of the case handle, but the being was still on top of her. C jumped back onto her feet and rushed back to help. T and S were still disentangling themselves from the floor in between the front chairs. 

They finally rose back to their feet just in time to see the being, instead of going for M hand’s to make her let go of the case, smash their fist into the top of it. The metal of it made a sickening crunch and the case popped open. The vial had broken and the glass punctured the cooling gel. It burst from inside the case spraying the being, M, and C. Everyone froze except for the being. They grabbed the broken case while climbing off M and rushed over to the door.

“No!” T cried, but it was too late. The being hit the button to open the door and it slid open. Immediately the team’s selperm belts activated encasing them in their own bubble and watched through the blue material as the being was sucked out into space. S quickly turned and hit the door button on the dash and it shut before anything else could fly out.

“What was that?” T asked looking first at M and C and over to S, “Why did they do that?” Before anyone could answer she heard a thud behind her and she and S turned to see C and M lying unconscious on the floor.

“Oh no,” S whispered and hit the activation button on T’s belt before activating her own belt. 

“What? What did you do that for?” T asked, but S didn’t answer. Instead she turned and the selperm separated so it could encase both her and the dash of Mini Art.

She hit a button and directed her voice into the comm system, “Art, let us inside, scan us, there’s only 4 beings on board.”

“Accepted,” Art’s voice replied and S sat down to direct Art Two back into the hangar.

“And set up for quarantine in the med lab. Send some bots down with hovering stretchers.” S told him.

“Quarantine? What are you talking about?” T asked, sitting in the chair next to S.

“Something is obviously wrong with M and C,” S said, trying to concentrate on the hangar in front of her, “That can’t just have been a plague cure. They wouldn’t be unconscious. I need to figure out what that stuff is.”

“You mean, you think they’re sick?” T asked sounding worried.

“I have no idea,” S said as she landed the shuttle and gave T a worried look, “I- I don’t know.”

~

T and S sat in the shuttle and watched as some of the bots from the med lab came and lifted the unconscious C and M onto hovering stretchers and guided them through the hangar and into the lift. Another bot cleaned up the few pieces of broken glass that fell out of the case and whatever residue was left of the liquid that sprayed the ship. Once it finally deemed the area clear of foreign materials S and T deactivated their selperms and jumped down from the shuttle.

“First we need to go up to the common area. We need to contact Dr. Snreg,” S instructed as they hurried over to the lift.

“Why? Shouldn’t we check on C and M first?” T asked. The lift doors opened and they climbed in.

“Common area please, Art. The bots will be getting all the data I need to help them right now and we’ll be useless,” S explained, “We need to know if Dr. Snreg knows anything about this stuff and how it’s obviously not a cure.” The lift door opened onto the common area and S rushed over to the large screen with T in tow. She hit the messaging program on her holo-screen and directed it to contact Dr. Snreg. The rotating circle appeared on the screen for a few moments before a message popped up that told them that Dr. Snreg wasn’t available at the moment.

“We just saw them,” T said. S was already back on her screen. The rotating circle appeared again. This time a face appeared on screen that wasn’t Dr. Snreg.

“Well if it isn’t my favorite apprentice,” the man said smiling at the screen.

“Dr. Lesfre, I’m sorry I have no time to explain, but if you could please call me S for the duration of our conversation. T, this is Dr. Lesfre, he taught me most of what I know about medicine and he also works at the Shibero Medical Facility.” Before T and the doctor could exchange pleasantries S launched ahead, “Dr. Lesfre we were just on planet meeting with Dr. Snreg. It is imperative that we speak to them, but they are not picking up. Would you be able to help?”

“It’s a large facility as you know R- uh S. It would take longer than you seem to have for me to get to their office, but I know a few beings over there I can get in touch with. Could you give me a moment?”

S nodded and Dr. Lesfre pushed a button to put their comm on hold. T and S stood in tense silence as they waited for Dr. Lesfre to return their comm. S absentmindedly rapidly tapped her heel on the ground in impatience. Finally Dr. Lesfre appeared back on the screen.

“Dr. Lesfre, any news?” S asked.

“I’m so sorry, but Dr. Snreg has disappeared,” Dr. Lesfre looked confused.

“How is that possible, we saw them about twenty minutes ago,” T countered harshly.

“I have no idea,” Dr. Lesfre shook his head, “A friend of mine saw them leave just after a meeting, I assume with you, and they have no idea where they went and neither does anyone else who works in that section.”

“Do you know what they are working there?” S asked.

Dr. Lesfre shook his head, “I’m sorry I don’t and even if I did, I couldn’t tell you. The work here is very strictly guarded.”

S sighed and closed her eyes thinking of her next move, but T stepped in this time, “Is there anyway you could help me get security footage of the shuttle hangar in your facility? We had security breach and I need to see when it happened. I have the credentials to be granted access.”

“I suppose I can transfer you over, yes. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” Dr. Lesfre said, and then again hit the hold button on screen. T turned to S.

“Listen, I will try and figure out who that being was on Art Two and where Dr. Snreg could have gone. You need to go down to the med bay and start working on C and M,” she told S. S nodded and pursed her lips.

“You can do this,” T assured her and put her hand on S’s shoulder.

S gave her a small smile, “I know I can,” she said, “I just wish I knew what was going on.”

“I’ve got it, leave that to me,” T patted S’s shoulder and to activated her own holo-screen and took control of the comm system, “You go do what you’re good at.” T smiled and S left for the lift.

~

When the lift doors opened the first thing S saw was the selperm now set up around the two beds in the med bay. M and C each lay on a bed, still unconscious. S froze for a moment taking in the scene and then collected herself. She through the door in the glass wall that separated the med bay from her lab.

“Where are we at Art?” S asked.

“Inserting blood samples to be analyzed,” Art’s voice responded. S looked through the glass wall to see a bot insert two vials of blood, one red and one a dark blue, into a machine that immediately came to life and drew a sample from each vial of blood that ran through tubes as dials spun in the machine. Data began filling a screen in the lab as S looked studied it.  
“Inconclusive?” S muttered to herself, “How can can this be inconclusive? They’re either sick or not.”

“Unknown,” Art’s voice responded.

“Art, run it through again,” S ordered. The machine whirred to life again. S watched as the machine drew another sample from the vials and data once again filled the screen in front of her.  
“Inconclusive,” Art’s voice responded.

“What is this?” S whispered to herself, “Okay, Art, I’m going to need you run every test we have, not just for possible infections, but anything, I need you to pull apart this blood at every level and tell me everything that it contains.

“Affirmative,” Art’s voice responded. The machine came alive again, but this time it ran faster and louder. The blood ran through more tubes as more dials spun working to do as S asked. S looked through the glass again at her friends lying unconscious. With a sigh she sat on a stool at a one of the laboratory counters and nervously waited for the results.

~

After about an hour T walked into the med bay focused on her holo-screen and just like S had before she froze when she looked up and caught sight of the selperm barrier with her friends lying beyond it. Her arm fell to her side and her mouth dropped open a fraction. She didn’t move until S noticed her and called out.

“T? Are you okay?”

T unfroze and looked over at who spoke though without actually focusing and just saw a blonde blur. She blinked and shook her head, taking a deep breath and walked into the lab.  
“How’s it going?” she asked S whose solemn face seemed to fall even further.

“Not good,” S shook her head and looked up at the screen again which was still running data. T sat on a stool on the other side of the counter and leaned onto it. “There is something weird about this. Art can’t even identify that there is something foreign in their system.”

“I may only have in field medical training, but even I know that shouldn’t be possible,” T’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“No, it’s shouldn’t,” S agreed, “Art may not be able pinpoint what is wrong, but he should be able to at least see something is wrong. I’m having him basically dissect their blood. I’m going to have to look at it all separately myself to see what doesn’t belong.” 

T’s mouth dropped again and her eyes bulged, “How long will that take?”

S closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, “A few hours.” T’s head snapped over to look at M and C through the glass. Her eyes filled with worry.

“Will they- I mean-” she looked back and S and let out a shaky breath, “Do they have- a few hours?”

S hesitated and nodded, “As far as I can tell. Their condition hasn’t changed since we brought them in. I’ve been monitoring their vitals while doing the blood tests since I don’t really have much else to do now.”

T let out a slow breath, “Well, how about an update on our mystery being?”

S perked up a little, “Did you find anything?” T nodded, “Your doctor friend got me in touch with security and they gave me their footage.” She angled her holo-screen so S could see it and they saw a frozen image view high over the hangar at the medical facility. T hit the screen and the video played, she zoomed into to get a closer look at Mini Art. “He disguised himself as crew to get close.”

“He shouldn’t be able to get in through the door,” S said watching the video with a confused expression.

“Just wait,” T sighed. The being approached Art Two and his body began shifting like there were waves under his skin. His features from the hair on the top of his head down to his boots changed to be a perfect replica of M. He placed his hand on a keypad by the door which automatically opened thinking it was M.

“He’s Agilmari,” S sighed.

“Yup,” T nodded and pulled her arm back.

“Don’t most planet entry points have detecting systems for them?” M asked.

“It’s a gray area,” T shrugged, “A lot of planets think it’s stereotyping since most don’t change appearance to commit crimes, which is true. Shibero is one of those planets.”

“But this one did,” S pointed out.

“Yeah, but we were also supposed to deliver-” T paused and looked over at M and C, “that, whatever it is to Agilmar. I think we’re mixed into something a lot bigger than we expected.”

S gave T a nervous look, “Maybe you’re right. Do you know who he is yet?” T shook her head.

“No, unfortunately I have to do my investigating the old fashioned way instead of hacking into databases. I’ve been in touch with the Agilmar government, but they haven’t been completely forthcoming yet. Apparently Prism had a lot of their enemies as clients in the past, and I mean for years, even before us. The team’s never worked against the Agilmari, but, still, they don’t feel very friendly towards us. I’ve also put out a track on Dr. Snreg. If he shows up on any Authority cameras, we’ll know.” The screen running all of S’s diagnostic data beeped and the women both jumped.

“What was that? Is it done?” T asked hopefully.

S shook her head, “No, it’s just moved onto the next stage of the analysis.”

T’s face fell, “Do you mind if I hang out in here while we wait? Or will I be a distraction?”

“No, that’s fine,” S nodded. T gave her a small smile and stood, grabbing the stool. She positioned it at the end of the counter in front of the glass wall. She sat and leaned her back on the counter watching the monitors in the quarantine area quietly beep.

~

A few hours passed. The machine finally started giving S microscopic images to analyse, though everything so far had come back as expected with normal blood work. She began flipping through databases of infections, looking at different viruses and bacterias from all over the galaxy hoping to find something that might fit what M and C were experiencing. Though since the only symptom so far seemed to be unconsciousness, she didn’t have much to go on.

T finally heard back from the Agilmar government and after explaining the situation they agreed to help. They were running the face of the attacker through facial recognition on their own systems and T hadn’t heard if they had any results yet. The women quietly sat, rarely speaking as S worked and T stared into the med bay. Once, to stretch her legs, T offered to get food for them, but they had barely touched what she brought back.

After a particularly nasty chapter on a organ eating bacteria from a planet called, Homtu, S stretched her sore back and looked over to the screen. There was no new images for her, but the analysis was almost complete. She sighed and looked over to T. She had her foot resting up on the glass, normally S would tell her to take it down, but the look on T’s face distracted her. While they had sat in the room, T had made small movements to check her watch or watch the bots work or look between C’s and M’s monitors, but now she was staring at her friends with a worried look on her face.

S asked before she could think better of it, “Do you like her?”

T jumped and turned around with a blank look as though she truly had heard S, “What?”

“Do you like her?” S asked again nodding in M’s direction, “You were staring.”

T scoffed, “I’ve been looking through this wall for hours.”

“You just looked different this time,” S said busying herself by scrolling the page about the Homtu bacteria up and down on her holo-screen. She looked back over to see T was back to staring through the wall, but with a more unsettled expression. “I think she likes you a lot.” S couldn’t help, but put a edge of warning in her voice.

T turned back again looking annoyed, “So, what, are you going to tell me off now?”

S shook her head, exasperated, and had to physically keep herself from rolling her eyes. When she spoke she couldn’t help the annoyance that came through her own voice, “That’s not what I’m here for T. Just- with what happened between C and Elitha I don’t think it’s a good idea to involve your personal life with this job. It’s dangerous.”

“S-” T snapped and pulled her foot of the glass wall while sitting up. S could tell she was getting more upset and was trying to stay level-headed. “This ship,” T continued, “Yes, it’s where we work, but this is our home. I agree with the rules about not sharing names or family information for their safety, but when it comes to our day to day lives as an independent being- We live here. We eat and sleep and spend all our free time here. How do you not include your personal life in a place that is your entire life?” T finally looked over to S imploring her to see her reasoning.

S always been good at compartmentalizing. As she looked into T’s face she thought about her daughter and about all the different ways she would have done this job differently if she didn’t keep that part of her life in a separate box. She thought about how the team might treat her differently if they knew there was someone who counted on her and depended on her for so much in her life. She couldn’t see a way to be in Prism and to include her daughter in that part of her life or include these women that she spent everyday with as part of her life with her daughter.

“It’s possible,” she said simply. T gave her a look as though S let her down. “So you do like her?” S asked.

T groaned and put her head in her hands. When she pulled it back up again, she shook her head and shrugged, “I think so. I don’t know. We’ve only flirted a little, but- you know Nan thought I liked her too.”

“Please do not compare me with Nan,” S grumbled and finally a smile broke out on T’s face.

Beeping blared from in the med bay and S’s and T’s heads snapped up in response. M was arching off her bed slightly struggling to breath.

“S!” T shouted.

“Art, get her an oxygen mask!” S cried out. Almost immediately a mask dropped from the ceiling. At the same time more beeping erupted from C’s monitors. She every muscle in her body began convulsing, rattling the bed.

“C!” T yelled. She pressed herself against the glass wall as though she could pass through it to her her friends.

“Art, C needs a sedative!” S called. She looked back over to M and saw a bot strapping the mask over her nose and mouth. A light illuminated on the ceiling which S knew as the indication that oxygen had started pumping through and M quieted. A bot had made its way to C and injected her in her arm. A moment later, the beeping stopped and everything in the med bay was calm again, but not in the lab. T was breathing heavily and swung around to S looking terrified.

“What was that?” T clamored.

“It must be escalating,” S could feel her heart pounding, but remained calm. She walked over to the screen where results would appear for the blood work. The screen showed it was just on the cusp of completion.

“Escalating? You think?” T flashed.

“T, getting angry with me isn’t going to help,” S said quietly.

“Just saying ‘escalating’ doesn’t explain what just happened,” T retorted.

“Well, I don’t know what just happened,” S snapped. Her response was so full of anger that T drew back. “That’s the point of this.” S gestured at the screen. “I’m trying to figure it out.” T untensed her shoulders a little and bit her lip. 

“Why’d they react differently?” She asked quietly. “They got infected with the same thing, right?”

“They have totally different biologies,” S explained, “It’s not surprising that they reacted differently. A little odd, but not completely out of the question.” The screen beeped again. “It’s done! What?” T walked over to stand by S as she studied the screen.

“What is it?” T asked.

“It says it can’t identify a part of the sample,” S said absentmindedly as she stared at the screen feeling more confused than ever. “How can that be possible? Art, can you show me a visual of that part?” The screen filled with the live microscopic image of the unidentifiable substance. The subjects were rapidly changing size, shape, and color as the two women looked on.

“Gross,” T whispered.

“This isn’t possible,” S said, more to herself than to T.

“What is it?” T asked.  
“The infection, whatever they are sick with, it looks like a virus, but it’s changing,” S was still staring at the image perplexed.

“It’s not supposed to do that?”

S shook her head, “A virus only changes when introduced to a host. It mutates its DNA so it can’t be detected so it can take over the host. So even if this virus changed, it would still be identifiable, but these… this sample is changing on its own and so quickly that Art can’t even tell me what virus it is.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means this is going to take a lot longer than I thought,” S said as her face fell and glanced at their unconscious teammates. “Art, I need you to take video of this image and then separate each frame into still images.” The screen beeped again. “I’m going to have to run each of the mutations and see if I can either recognize them from sight or run them through image recognition to try and match them to some known virus.”

“That seems like a lot,” T said apprehensively.

“It’s going to take hours, again,” S sighed and flattened her hands on a counter leaning over it, “I don’t even know how fast this thing is moving through their systems.”

T didn’t respond so she turned around to look at her. The blue haired woman was standing very still chewing on her tongue, eyes boring through the glass wall. Her heel was tapping the ground so quickly it looked as though it was vibrating. T noticed S had turned toward her and she took a deep breath.

“We do what we can for now,” T absentmindedly tapped her watch, “I’m going to go see if there’s any news on Dr. Snreg or from the Agilmari. Do you need anything?” S rubbed her eyes and then slid her hands down her face thinking of all the work she had to do in the next few hours, but she shook her head.

“I need this not to be happening, but other than that, no,” she sighed. T nodded and walked over the lift and disappeared behind the door.

“All right Art, show me the images,” S turned back to the screen and several images with different viruses popped up on the screen. S sighed, reactivating her holo-screen to start flipping through images of different infections again.

~

“You will never guess what I found!” T came running into the lab. S looked around her holo-screen a little bleary eyes from looking at images of infections. 

“A cure?” She asked sarcastically.

“No,” T stood across the counter from her and pressing all five finger tips on the screen she swiped up and the image appeared on S’s large lab screen. They both turned to it as T explained, “Our mystery being, his name is Wechan Retio.” The being’s mugshot illuminated her screen. “He’s a part of a radical group that is fighting for a being named Sertip Adgan to take over the government on Agilmar. This being is nasty. They would let Agilmari use their shifting abilities wherever they want, to basically takeover. They think Agilmari is a superior form since they can shift and want to have control over this whole system and beyond.”

“So I’m guessing someone was using this virus as biological warfare?” S turned back to T.

“I’ve been looking into that too. Shibero has its own radical group that doesn’t like their open door policy with the Agilmari. They think it’s just asking to be attacked. They don’t even care that the current government has laws against using the shifting for crime. My guess is that Dr. Snreg is part of this group and developed this weapon to send to Agilmar. I contacted the Authority and have them checking with their contacts in that group to locate Snreg. Boom!” T was smiling as she pointed at the screen as she ended her speech, but S remained silent as she started rubbing a finger up and down her nose with her eyes closed.

Finally she broke her silence, “So you are telling me that we are now in the middle of a war between two radical groups more than willing to kill a mass number of beings and we still have no idea where the inventor of the main weapon is?”

T’s face fell, “Uh, yeah.” S sighed and looked over into the quarantine area. A second later she sat bolt upright and hopped off the stool over to the glass wall.

“What?” T asked as she followed behind, but she didn’t need S to explain as she got closer. Both M and C had blood, red in M’s case and blue in C, leaking out of the corners of their eyes, their nostrils, and ears.

“Are you any closer to figuring out what this is?” T whispered.

“Art, I need a coagulant for both M and C please, low dose for now,” S said. “No,” she told T as she watched the bots move into action, “I’ve identified several of the viruses that this morphs into and I even have in my stock anti-serums for each of them. The problem is they keep mutating so fast. I would have to develop a brand new anti-serum to fight each mutation and I can’t do that in the time we have. The only way to do this would be to slow down the morphing so it could stay as one virus long enough to treat...” S trailed off. T turned to her and she saw her friend’s pink eyes had grown wide and her mouth was hanging open.

“S, are you okay?” T asked.

“This is brilliant,” S said and looked at T, her face still in shock, “and terrible.”

“What is?”

To T’s surprise S gave a low chuckle and said, “They used the Agilmari.”

“What are you talking about? Tell me what you figured out?” T was becoming slightly impatient.

“Oh I am so dumb, I should have realized this before. They used the Agilmari shapeshifting ability to develop this bioweapon. The virus can change because it’s shapeshifting. They must have sped it up somehow. When there was an outbreak on Agilmar, the doctors there would have seen it right away and then…” S was explaining rapidly, but at this she slowed and paused, “Then they would have to develop a serum to stop the shapeshifting. To cure an outbreak that would kill everyone on their planet, they would basically have to develop a way to destroy something so ingrained in their way of life.”

“Whoa,” T whispered.

“Yeah,” S breathing became heavy and her eyes welled with tears, “Which means I can’t do anything. Developing that serum is highly experimental. I am not a researcher, and even if I was, something like that could take weeks! I can’t help them. The one thing that I’m good at, the reason I’m on this team, and I can’t even do that.” Tears rolled down her face as T gave her a panicked look.

“You’re saying they developed a disease with no cure?” T suggested.

“I don’t know,” S waved her hand and turned away from the glass wall, “They might have made their own anti-serum just in case something happened, but the main idea was to have the Agilmari basically shoot themselves in the foot.”

T’s shoulders tensed and a scary calm abruptly took over her face, “Okay.” She walked out of the lab to the lift.

“Where are you going?” S asked.

“To get weapons, meet me in the hangar, you need to fly me down to the planet,” T matter of factly said as the door to the lift slid open.

“Whoa, what? Why are we going to the planet with weapons?” S asked, following her. She stood close enough to the lift door that it remained open.

“You said you can’t do anything. You tried medically and it didn’t work. There is a reason we’re a team with different specialties. You can’t help them so I’m going to shoot things until I find someone who can. Flying is something else you’re good at, I’m not so I need you,” T said sharply, but pragmatic.

“We can’t just go shoot up the medical facility,” S tried to reason.

“That’s why you’re going to tell your friend that we need to question anyone Dr. Snreg worked with. He’s going to get us in. Can you let the lift go now?” A frowning T nodded to where the lift door was housed. S still stood in front of the door. The shocked look had returned to her face. T’s shoulders dropped as she took a small step forward and softened a little.

“You’re an amazing doctor and you tried everything you could to help them. You did what you’re good at. Now let me do what I’m good at.” Something seemed to break in S as she unfroze and nodded. She took a step back as the door closed in front of T, who had regained her hard and quiet frightening demeanor and the lift descended.

~ 

When Art Two landed back in the hangar at the medical facility, Dr. Lesfre was already waiting for them.

“Thank you for helping us find Dr. Snreg’s lab,” S shook the doctor’s hand as they greeted each other. T was still behind them talking to the hangar crew.

“I’ve set an alarm on this shuttle. I don’t care if it’s me who walks up to it. No one touches it, no one even goes near it. It has enough fuel. When I come back I’ll disable the alarm and only then can we go near it. If anyone tries, I’ll know, you understand?” She held up her watch as an indication. The crew nodded and backed away.

“Is she all right?” Dr. Lesfre asked, looking concerned and a little anxious as T stalked over to them.

“She’ll be fine once we talk to Dr. Snreg’s lab assistants,” S said quietly. T had spent the entire ride down to the hangar in silence, prepping her weapons. S could feel the angry energy coming off her, like she was about to explode, and knew it would be better not to say anything to her. The three beings walked out of the hangar and through the facility.

“Yes, you were saying over the video comm,” Dr. Lesfre lowered his voice, “You think they may have been using this facility to develop something dangerous?”

“We’ll know more when we talk to them,” T said curtly, her face set in hardlines. After that Dr. Lesfre didn’t ask anymore questions. He walked them down a few bright white, windowless hallways with door labelled as labs for different doctors. They finally reached a door with Dr. Snreg’s name on it and Dr. Lesfre stopped.

“This is the only lab I know of,” he said with his voice shaking slightly as he glanced nervously at T, “Do, uh, you need me to stay?”

“Probably better if you didn’t,” T said.

“Thank you, Dr. Lesfre, but we can take it from here,” S said. 

“You aren’t going to, uh, hurt anyone, are you?” he asked in low whisper.

“Do you really want to know that?” T asked.

“What she means, is that we will make sure if anything happens, it only happens as a last resort,” she said pointedly eyes fixed on T, “and none of the blame falls onto you.”

Dr. Lesfre nodded and they watched as he hurried back from the way he came. T pulled out a small gun and switched the safety off. She held it low by her thigh so it wasn’t immediately visible to anyone who might be inside the lab.

“Last resort,” S reminded, “We are just here to ask if they know anything about the virus or if they know where Dr. Snreg might be.”

“Yes, m’am,” T nodded, but didn’t smile. S knocked on the door of the lab. After a moment a being with long blonde hair tied up in a bun and green skin opened it and took in the two women in front of her.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

S gave her a wide smile, “Yes we were wondering if we could talk to Dr. Snreg. They seem to have disappeared.”

“About what?” The woman asked.

“About the bioweapon they said was a potential cure that they wanted us to transport to Agilmar,” T said. The woman stared at them for a moment and then slammed the door shut.

“That’s what I thought,” T said as she shot the door jamb. As the door swung open they could see the woman was all the way across the lab running for another door. T tucked the gun in the back of her pants before she ran and jumped on top on the first of the four counters that lined the width of the lab. She leapt from counter to counter making her way across the room in less time than it took S to run around it. T jumped off the counter and landed on top of the woman who fell face forward. She landed with a yell and swung around and stuck an empty needle to T’s neck. T yelled and the woman took her distraction as an opportunity to get away and continue for the other door. T barely skipped a beat before she ripped the needle out and pulled the gun out to shoot the woman in the back of her knee. The woman yelled and stumbled, but didn’t stop as she limped toward the door.

“T! Last resort!” S yelled, coming up behind her. T didn’t answer, but her face looked terrifying. She tucked the gun away again as she advanced on the woman and grabbed the back of her lab coat, throwing her against the wall and holding her there.

“Listen, even if you have another needle you aren’t getting anywhere fast now, so you are going to answer our questions,” T snarled. The woman’s face had gone pale and was breathing heavily from the fight. She looked between S’s stern face and T’s furious one and sagged in the hold.

“Fine,” she snapped.

“Did you know you were developing a bioweapon?” S asked.

“Yes,” the woman huffed, but didn’t say anything else.

“But Dr. Snreg ran the project?” S asked.

“Yes,” the woman huffed again. Without warning T punched her in the face. The woman and S cried out in pain and shock respectively.

“T, what are you doing?” S demanded. T once again ignored her.

“Two of my friends are infected with your weapon so when S asks you a question I’m going to need you to give her a little more information, you understand me?”

“Seriously? You’re Prism, right?” The woman scoffed, “I thought you were the best, and you’re telling me two of you were stupid enough to infect themselves?” S could almost hear T’s control snap. Before she knew it, T had thrown the woman to the floor. She threw herself on top of the woman and began repeatedly punching her in the face as the woman screamed.

“T! T! Stop! Stop!” S yelled and tried to pull T off the woman. T pushed S away and pulled the gun out again and put it under the woman’s chin.

“Is there a cure?” T asked coldly.

“No, no,” the woman coughed through the blood in her mouth. T barely twitched before the woman called out, “Wait, no, there’s something, but it’s not a cure.”

“Is it a freezing agent? Something to slow the shifting?” S asked quickly bending over the woman. She nodded as much as she could with the gun tilting her head back. T was stock still, but was glaring down at the woman.

“Where is it? Is it here?” S asked quickly. The woman shook her head.

“No,” she coughed up more blood, “Dr. Snreg took it with him.”

“And where is Dr. Snreg?,” T demanded.

“I don’t know,” the woman whined, “They were meeting up with some of our group and leaving the planet.”

“Though they left you behind,” T prompted.

“If we all left it would be suspicious, I was going to meet up with them in a few days,” the woman struggled underneath T who removed the gun and pulled out one of the restraint bracelets. She wrapped it around the woman’s wrists and the electricity in it sprang to life.

“The Authority will be by to collect you shortly,” T stood up and tucked her gun in the back of her pants and pulled her shirt over to hide it. She walked back toward the front door of the lab. S looked up and around and found a first aid kit. She pulled out two wet clothes and used one to wipe the blood off the woman’s face before handing her an ice pack.

“You’ll be fine,” she said and then followed T out the front door of the lab. Outside T was walking down the hallway opening up a comm on her holo-screen.

“Wait,” S snapped and T whirled around ready to protest, but S handed her the other wet cloth. “You’re covered in blood, at least clean up a little before you call anyone.” T raised her eyebrows, but took the cloth and wiped off her face, neck, and as much as she could off her shirt.

“I thought you’d be mad,” T said. S looked at her friend in disbelief.

“Oh, I am furious, but we need to deal with one problem at a time and right now that is finding Dr. Snreg. I just hope the group hasn’t left yet,” S barked.

“I’m on it,” T tucked the cloth away and opened up a new video comm as they walked back through the facility. A moment later a blue face accompanying an Authority uniform appeared a moment later. T headed them off before they could say anything, “Hey, Matta, we’re still working on that case with Dr. Snreg. I know I asked you all to focus on any hideouts that the radical group has, but now we heard they are leaving the planet. Do you have an sources on where they might go to get transport?”

“Sure, give me a moment, I can check with some ports where we have some beings stationed,” Matta said.

“Thank you, also there is a member of that group in Dr. Snreg’s lab waiting for you folks to pick her up,” T said.

“I’ll get some officers there right away,” Matta responded.

“Thanks Matta, this is time sensitive so get back to me as soon as you can,” T shut down the comm without saying goodbye as the women reached the hangar doors. Art Two sat where they left it, untouched. T disabled the alarm and they climbed aboard.

S sat in the pilot’s seat and started the shuttle’s engine. T however stayed in the back of the shuttle and reached underneath one of the passenger seats. She removed a box and opened the top revealing a pile of clothes. She grabbed a shirt and pushed the box under the seat again.

“I’m going up to the atmosphere while we wait for new from Authority. Strap in,” S said flatly and quickly hit the throttle. T almost fell over before she pulled herself into a passenger seat and strapped in. S steered the shuttle up and out of the hangar and flew into the clouds surrounding the planet. She pulled the throttle back and the shuttle hovered, surrounded by haze. T slowly unstrapped watching S closely, waiting to see if she was going to surprise her again. When nothing happened after a moment T tugged the bloody shirt over her head and threw it on another passenger seat and slipped the clean one over her head. The women sat in silence again as T sat staring at her fingers as the tapped on her legs and S stared, unseeing out the front window.  
“You lost control,” S finally said, continuing to stare straight forward.

“We needed to know about the serum,” T also continued to stare at her fingers, but she stopped tapping.

“You could have killed her,” S replied.

“I wasn’t going to kill her,” T defended as she rolled her eyes. S finally turned around and gave T a look that resembled shock with concern thrown in. T returned her gaze, but S couldn’t read her expression.

“You held a gun under her chin!” S’s voice raised a little without her meaning to.

“It was a tactic, but I wasn’t going to kill her. We’re running out of time S, we didn’t have time for her to laugh at our friends while they are dying!” T waved a hand in the general direction of Art.  
“And that’s why you lost it, didn’t you?” S said frowning.

“Yeah I care about them!”

“We don’t torture beings for information-”

“I didn’t torture-”

“We don’t hurt beings for information unless it’s absolutely necessary and we were far from that. You know that and you may threaten, you may point your gun, but this time…” S took a deep breath looking for her words, “All rational thought went out the window. I know that look because I’ve seen it before when we’re fighting someone who is actually trying to kill us, but she wasn’t.”

T shot S a puzzled, but slightly angry look and practically shouted, “That woman developed something that would kill millions of beings! M and C are dying right now-”

“She wasn’t presenting an immediate threat and you know it!” S flung back her restraints and stood up looked down on T. “You went into battle mode, but worse because you completely lost control. You let your feelings, your fear, for M get in the way of doing your job. Just like I said could happen.”

T looked up at S with a disdainful look, “C is my friend too, you don’t think I’m worried about her?”

“C’s been in trouble before and you didn’t do this then!” S walked past T to the open space in the back of Art Two. “The only new variable in this equation is M!”

“When C has been in trouble before she’s been able to take care of herself!” T stood to face her from across the shuttle and was practically yelling now, “They are up in the med bay dying from this thing that you have never seen before and can’t treat! So that’s another new variable if you want to get scientific because that’s all you ever do.”

“It’s what’s best for the team!” S shouted back, “When you mix your personal life with this job beings get hurt, like that girl!” T moved so quickly S barely had time to register it before T was in her face.

“And if I didn’t do that we would have wasted time asking stupid questions until she maybe told us what we needed! I did what I needed to do to save this team, to save my friends!” The tension in the shuttle resembled putty and both women were breathing heavy.

“They are my friends too! I want to help them as much as you do!” S pointed a finger at T.

“Do you? Wouldn’t that be bringing your “personal life” into your job? Don’t get close to anything or anyone because that’s what’s “best.” That’s shit and you know it. Everything you do, you look at through a microscope, at arm’s length. Never get close to anyone or tell us anything about you. I didn’t know you had been married until a few weeks ago. Am I your friend or am I your coworker? Pick one now and let me know so I can stick to that!” T’s fists were clenched by her sides as though she wanted to hit something in her anger, but it was not T who was afraid of S. T had never seen her this angry before. She had seen her mad, or focused when fighting, but never angry like this.

“You want to know about me? You want to know about my life outside of Prism?! That’s what friendship is to you? Knowing about parts of my life that don’t even affect you? Not the number of times I’ve saved you? I’ve helped you? I’ve healed your wounds or all the meals we’ve shared as a group? Fine! I have a daughter!”

T gasped and all her anger drained away. The tension in the shuttle washed away like a flood and she froze with her mouth open. S turned and faced the wall. She put a shaking hand over her face as she tried to regain composure.

“You-” T started quietly, but faltered, “I just- I didn’t expect that.”

“No.” S took a deep breath. She took another deep breath before turning around and trying to look at T, but she couldn’t meet her eyes so she settled with staring at her shoulder.  
“Her name is Deteria. She lives with her father on Seem. I comm her a lot and send money. I visit when I can.”

“Pretty,” T responded nodding slightly as she too couldn’t look at S’s face so she just stared at her elbow, “Her name I mean.”

“Thank you,” S whispered, “I don’t talk about her because if I bring her into this life, if you three know about her then it’s all I’d think about on jobs. She’s all I think about anyway, but I am very careful not to let it affect you. Every decision I’d make would be with her in mind and I don’t know if I’d be able to do my job. I’d feel like you would see me differently, like I shouldn’t do dangerous things because of her. It’s just better to keep her away from all of this, even if it’s just the knowledge of her.” The two women stood in silence for a long moment before T looked like someone hit her play button and she rolled her eyes again.

“You are perfectly capable of defending yourself. Just because you’re a mom doesn’t change that. My mom was the one who took me into battle the first time and with you as a mom I’m sure Deteria will get the same from you.” S smiled and glanced up to see a look of amusement playing on T’s face.

“Thank you,” S said. She took a step closer to T, who quickly glanced down to the floor and rocked her feet before she turned her head to stare out into the clouds. She took a deep breath and pulled her hands behind her back.

“I got scared. I am scared. For both of them,” T clarified, “I like to think that it makes me a good fighter sometimes, keeps me going.”

“I can see that,” S bobbed her head quickly and T looked around to her.

“I don’t know what my feelings for M, but I will agree that I may have lost control when that woman insulted them. I was already scared and just got so angry,” T took another deep breath, “If I do like her, and I act on it, I promise I’ll make sure it doesn’t affect you or this team in the field.”

S bobbed her head again, “Thank you.”

“And yes, I like knowing about the lives of the beings around me, even if they don’t affect me, if I don’t know anything it feels like they are hiding something and that makes me feel like I can’t fully trust… them,” T paused before saying the last word and S knew she almost said “you.”

“I’ll try and open up a little more,” S promised and smiled at T.

“Kay,” T smiled back.

“But it’s still my life, and if it’s off ship then I still deserve to keep a little to myself without having to share it with anyone, even if you are one of my closest friends and I need you to accept that.”  
T nodded, “I’ll work on that.” S stepped forward and wrapped her hand around T’s arm.

“You can trust me. No matter what,” S assured her. She thought she saw T’s eyes grow glassy before T blinked and looked down.

“Yeah, same,” T replied looking back up at S with a smile.

A ping from T’s watch made them both jump. She activated the holo-screen and answered the comm.

“You have impeccable timing, Matta,” T joked.

“Thank you, and I hope you do too,” S heard Matta’s voice come from the speakers.

“You found them?” T assumed.

“Yes, but you need to hurry, they are on their way to the Shibero port to leave the planet. They are in a Class C Masdr shuttle, gray. Registration number FF-539-RG.”

“You are the best, Matta, thank you,” T hung up before Matta could respond. S was already in the pilot’s seat entering the registration number into the shuttle’s locating system, it found the shuttle immediately.

“They’re not too far, but they’re on the move,” S said as she lowered Art Two out of the clouds.

“All right, get us over them,” T said moving into the back of the shuttle.

“Are you going drop in?”

“I told you, I’m calling it “The Spider”!” T grinned as she pulled a long heavy rope out of a crate in the back. She attached one end of it to a hook by the door and the other end to her utility belt.  
“I’m not calling it that,” S called back. She grabbed a device from a compartment in the dash and pressed a button to turn it on. She handed the device back to T as they zoomed over the city, moving ever closer to their target. When they could see the shuttle they were tracking, S pulled Art Two above and kept pace with it.

“All right, you’re good to go,” S said. T pocketed the device and threw the rope around her arm up over her shoulder and opened the shuttle door. The wind whipped her hair around trying to pull it out of its ponytail. She grabbed a handle inside the door and swung around so she was hanging outside and facing Art Two.

“See you in a minute,” she saluted S and pushed herself off from the shuttle. S rolled her eyes as she turned back to the dash and pressed the button that shut the door.

As T fell the rope unraveled from her shoulder. She had her eyes trained on the shuttle growing larger below her. With a loud bang, her feet hit the roof of the shuttle and she crouched taking in the impact of the landing.

“Schematics say the plug will be on the bottom near the back of the shuttle,” S said in T’s ear.

“The bottom?” T groaned as she released the rope from her belt. Before she could say anything else she saw a hatch in front of her pop open and a being with green spots covering their face appeared. T pulled out her gun and quickly shot them in the face before slamming the hatch shut. It couldn’t do much to stop them from opening it again, but it did give her a few seconds to peer over the rear of the shuttle and see a ladder built into the back. She tucked away her gun and climbed down. Hanging from the bottom rung she saw the panel she was looking for. She tapped it open and plugged the device into the ship.

“It’s all yours S!” T called over the wind touching her comm. A plasma blast hit right next to her hand on the ladder, almost making her lose her grip. She looked up to see another being with one eye aiming another shot at her.

“Two eyes are much more helpful with guns,” T called as she pulled hers and shot the being in the face. They fell and toppled off the side of the shuttle disappearing as they they fell to the ground. T tucked the gun away again and scrambled up the ladder. As she reached the top another being looking similar to the last was approaching the ladder and she punched them in the eye. She pulled herself onto the roof and kicked the being in the head. She ran to the hatch and saw another being who looked like Dr. Snreg, but with dark fur preparing to pull themselves up to the roof. She jumped through the hatch on top of the being knocking them to the floor and unconscious. She pulled out her gun as she peered around the shuttle. The only beings left inside were the pilot and Dr. Snreg who had a gun pointed at T in turn.

“Probably would have been smarter to stay on the roof where you had some advantage,” Dr. Snreg said as she glared at them.

“I still have the advantage,” T told him, “Now, S.” Nothing happened for a moment and Dr. Snreg looked confused. “Well… this is awkward. S?!” T called into her comm. Dr. Snreg opened their mouth to retort, but before anything came out the shuttle violently tilted up. Dr. Snreg lost their footing and spilled into the back of the shuttle, dropping their gun. T lunged forward and caught the gun before gripping a chair to keep upright.

“What are you doing?” The doctor called up to the pilot.

“That wasn’t me!” The pilot called back, “None of the controls are responding to me.”

“Don’t need you anymore,” T said and shot the pilot. They fell unconscious onto their useless controls. The shuttle righted itself and T stood over Dr. Snreg, “S will be now be your pilot today. We hope you enjoy your non-stop flight to Shibero’s Authority headquarters.” She grinned down at them before kicking them in the face. As Dr. Snreg yelled T slid her gun into the back of her pants and threw the one she took from Dr. Snreg through the roof hatch.

When she turned back to Dr. Snreg, they were shaking on the floor and holding their nose. T could see blood through their fingers. She walked back over and crouched down next to them.  
“You are going to give me that freezing agent.” Her voice was soft, but had an edge that made chills run through Dr. Snreg. They looked up to her and glared.

“I hired you to do a job and you failed,” Dr. Snreg growled, “Why would I give you anything?” T’s frown deepened, and her arm snapped out to grab them by the front of their shirt. She lifted them off their feet and held them against the wall.

“You are going to give it to me now or I will find it while you are unconscious. Either way you aren’t getting out of being arrested and I don’t really have time to look for it, so,” her freehand shot out and punched the doctor hard in the chest and they both heard a bone crack, “Give me the freezing agent and maybe you will go to the Authority with most of your ribs intact. I hear their medical facilities aren’t as nice as yours.” Dr. Snreg hung from T’s hand wheezing for a moment before he slowly reached into his jacket pocket.

“Stop,” T snapped. Dr. Snreg froze while T pulled open the jacket flap. There was a pocket inside the front.

“I’m just getting the agent,” Dr. Snreg whimpered.

“Pull it halfway out and then hands up. If I think, you even twitch in the wrong way you’ll regret it,” T snarled. Dr. Snreg did as she asked, very slowly. Once their hands were up in the air, T pulled the small case they had revealed the rest of the way out of the pocket and dropped Dr. Snreg to the floor. They landed with a thud on the side of their broken rib and cried out. T walked away and carefully opened the case. Inside sat a small vial with a purple liquid.

“We were just trying to prevent a tragedy,” Dr. Snreg breathed heavily, “Our government won’t take action so we did it for them.”

“Prevent a tragedy?” T whispered, “You created something that would have destroyed the Agilmari. What do you call that?”

“They would have done the same to us,” Dr. Snreg hissed.

“You can’t punish someone because they might do something bad.”

“Many beings agree with me and my group,” Dr. Snreg glared up at her, “If it’s not us, someone will do something. Is Prism going to safeguard an entire planet?”

“No, but once the Agilmari find out what your group did I’m sure they’ll have their own ideas,” T warned as she felt the shuttle land. 

“So you’ll protect a bunch of killers from me, but not me from them?” Dr. Snreg asked her. The door flew open and she hopped out clutching the freezing agent.

“Pretty much, cause you actually deserve it,” T walked in the direction of the landing Art Two as Authority officers with guns pointed rushed in to detain the doctor.

~

S never fully landed Art Two. T ran over the shuttle hovering a foot off the ground and hopped through the open door. Once she was strapped in she and S rushed back up to Art. When they entered the lab they found M and C with even more machines attached and keeping them alive when they left. Art had kept them alive while they were gone, but they were running out of time.

“Can you do anything with that?” T asked nodding to the freezing agent. S already had the serum out and put the vial in her machine.

“Art, analyze that,” S instructed and turned back to T, “Hopefully.” The serum ran through the machine and Art’s voice came from overhead.

“Inconclusive.”

“Shocking,” T deadpanned.

“Art, add a sample to the blood we took from each C and M, and show the reactions on the screen please,” S said, walking over to the screen. T moved in behind her to watch. Two circles were fixed side by side on the black screen showing the virus rapidly mutating before them. A drop of purple appeared in each circle and quickly blended in with the blood. S and T didn’t move, they couldn’t even hear the other breathing. The only sounds were that of the machine and the whirring of all the machines keeping their friends alive in the next room. S was biting her lip and T could feel her limbs go numb as they watching the screen where nothing seemed to be changing.

S gasped, “Did you see that?”

“What?” T jumped.

“It slowed down!”

“What?” T cocked her head slightly.

“The virus, it’s not mutating as quickly,” S stepped closer to the screen.

“How can you tell?” T asked, following.

“I was counting. Watch,” S explained and pointed at one of the circles. As soon as it changed form she began, “One, two, three.” It changed again, “One, two, three.” “One, two, three, FOUR!” It changed and T gasped. “See!”

“How much slower does it need to get?” T turned to S.

“It needs to stop so I can see what type of anti-serum to use, or possibly make.”

“Well we proved it slowed, we don’t have time. We need to give it to them,”. T gestured at their friends behind the quarantine wall.

“We have no idea what this will do to them. This could slow and then suddenly attack their system. We don’t know what Dr. Snreg gave us.”

“I’m not willing to sit around and watch them die to find out,” T said and then looked at the ceiling, “Art, give C and M the freezing agent.” Nothing happened.

“Art? Hello? Do something!” T practically stamped her foot in frustration.

“This is my med lab. He won’t listen to you in here!” S rolled her eyes. She looked into T’s face. Her friend was staring at her with an expression that was a mix of panic and pleading. Finally, S sighed.

“Art, give C and M the freezing agent,” S ordered. The purple liquid flew through tubes into the other room where they filled bots in the ceiling. Two bots each pulled away and injected C and M with the agent. T pulled S into a hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“We’ll see,” S said as she gave T’s back a little pat. “I don’t like doing that when I don’t know everything.” T pulled away.

“Believe me, so do I, we just don’t have time and this was the best plan,” S looked back up at the test image on the screen. It was still slowing down.

“I hope you’re right,” S nodded.

~

Time dragged by while the two women waited. S was pacing back and forth in front of the screen trying not to look every two seconds as the image slowed down. T sat on a stool leaning against one of the countertops staring at the screen with her chin resting on her hands. Every few seconds her head started to loll before she’d catch herself and shake her head awake. After twenty minutes of this, S stopped in front of her.

“You should get some sleep. It’s been a long day and you’ve been jumping in and out of shuttles,” S said. “And if you fall off of that stool, I don’t really have time to treat you.”

T gave a small smile and mumbled, “‘Mm fine. I’m not going anywhere.” S sighed and moved away to continue pacing when T said, “It stopped.” S looked back and T was staring at the screen. The image of their test sample on the screen was still slightly moving, but as S watched the virus didn’t mutate. It had reverted to a single organism.

“I can treat that,” S said quietly and turned to pull open a large drawer sitting in the counter. It made as hissing noise as T glanced over the counter to see a chilled drawer with many different little vials stored inside.

“I don’t know if this is the virus that it will stop as in C and M, but if it is,” S pulled out a vial from the second row, “This will kill it. It will cure them.”

“Get a blood sample,” T suggested, looking more alert.

“I’ll wait a few minutes,” S said, looking back to the screen, “We gave them the agent a few minutes after the sample. Give it some time.”

“It might work faster with a bloodstream,” T shrugged.

“You are not the medical expert,” S pointed out, “Besides it might work slower because it has more of the virus to slow.” T raised her eyebrows at S. “Just give it a few minutes.” S said calmly. T sighed and laid her head on her arms facing in the direction of the ward and her friends. Next thing she knew, S grabbed her shoulder and was shaking her. T sat bolt upright with a gasp.

“I fell asleep!” she exclaimed.

“Yes, but it’s all right,” S said. T rubbed her eyes and looked around the room.

“What happened?” She asked.

S grinned, “I took a blood sample and the freezing agent worked. It stopped the mutation, same virus as the sample. It must of been the base. I gave them the anti-serum and it’s working.” Above them they heard Art’s voice, “Area clear, end quarantine protocol.” As T and S rushed out of the lab the selperm that had barricaded them from C and M disappeared. The two women still lay unconscious.

“It’s going to take awhile for them to wake up. Their bodies went through a lot,” S explained. “They’re going to be ok, I’m going to stay and monitor them, but if you want you can go up to b-” T brushed past her and back into the lab. She grabbed the stool and carried it back into the ward and positioned it between M and C’s beds. “Or you can stay here,” S finished.

“Yeah I’m good,” T nodded with a slight smile on her face. S rolled her eyes, but smiled and walked back into the lab.

“Hey S?” T called and S poked her head back in to see T looking at M, “If M and I- well if- if we did, maybe, decide we had feelings for each other,” T took a deep breath and turned back to S, “Would you have a problem with that?” S’s breath caught her throat. She didn’t say anything and just stared at T, thinking.

“Like you said, if it didn’t affect how the team worked; if you were able to keep your relationship out of our jobs, then I suppose it wouldn’t a problem,” S said slowly.  
“Thanks,” T smiled. S gave her a small smile back before ducking into the lab.

~

T jumped awake for the second time and before she could open her eyes she mumbled, “I fell asleep again.”

“Yeah, but we figured it was your turn so we just let you sleep,” a voice said. T’s eyes snapped open and she saw C and M grinning at her, medical machines removed, and finally awake.

“You’re awake!” T shouted and jumped off the stool. She froze for a moment struggling with who she wanted to go to first when S walked out of the lab.

“Leave them be for awhile T,” S said.

“Yeah, everything still hurts,” C smiled at her. T nodded and sat back down again.

“What happened? I want to hear everything,” M croaked.

“You were infected with a biological weapon,” T said.

“And we caught the beings who made it and cured you,” S finished, “We’ll give you the details later after you’re feeling better.”

“Sounds like you had some fun without us,” M joked.

“It was-” T paused, thinking, “Well, I like having a team of four of us. Two is stressful.”

“Agreed,” S nodded.

“I lost control,” T blurted out and the team fell silent. The happy energy in the room dissipated and was replaced with a solemn gloom. “When I have you guys around and everyone has their job and is able to protect themselves, I’m okay, but I was stressed and... I hurt someone.”

“She was one of the developers of the bioweapon,” S explained quietly. C gave a small nod. M lay close enough to T that she reached out her hand and hovered over T’s hand resting on her knee. She seemed to make a decision and wrapped her hand around T’s. T glanced up at her.

“You were helping us, right?” M asked. T nodded. “She was a bad person, and you were doing what you to do to help us. I’m glad you did.”

T looked down at the floor and shook her head, “She could of died.”

“Well we’re okay now. It won’t happen again,” M reassured her.

“Will she be all right?” C asked.

“Yes,” S nodded.

“Then it’s okay, everything’s okay,” C smiled at T again and nodded. T returned a weak smile and the solemn feeling around the room lifted in the a comfortable quiet.

“Well,” S finally broke the silence, “we seem to be all good down here. I have a scheduled call I need to make.” The other three women snapped their heads around in surprise.

“What? We just woke up,” C almost whined.

“Can’t you reschedule?” M asked, “You’ve been working all night.”

“It’s just- it’s really important,” S said and absentmindedly glanced at T, who immediately caught on.

“Let her go,” T said and it was S’s turn to join M and C as their gazes rounded on T who continued, joking lightly, “You know S, her whole day is ruined if she breaks a schedule.”

“I’ll be monitoring you from my watch. I’ll just be in my room for a bit. I’ll be back,” S said giving a pointed look to T, trying to convey thanks as she climbed onto the lift.

As soon as she locked the door to her quarters she hit the comm button labelled “Deteria” and sat on her bed.

“Mommy!” Deteria’s voice and face appeared a moment later.

“You always sound surprised,” S laughed, “I always call at the same time.”

“Sometimes you’re busy and can’t,” Deteria pouted.

“I know, honey, I’m sorry,” S saw a shadow she knew to be Genic in the background, “But guess what? I think I can be there for your birthday.”

“Really?!” Deteria shrieked and bounced out of frame while S laughed. Genic appeared in the frame.

“You made her day,” he laughed, “When’d you find that out?”

“I decided,” S said, “Like you said, we’re a team and you deserve for me to do my part. This may be where I spent most of my time, I’m not going to let it affect the time I have with my daughter.”

“That’s- different,” Genic said, but didn’t pry, “Well I don’t think you’re going to get her back today. She’s going off the walls.”

S laughed and said, “That’s fine. I’ll talk to you two later.” S smiled at him as she hung up the comm.


	6. Prism Part 6- Inside Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 6: Inside Out
> 
> CW: character death
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

A loud banging on her door made M jolt, sitting straight up in bed, pulled from a deep sleep.

“Come in,” M grumbled and groggily rubbed her eyes. The door to M’s quarters slid open with a soft woosh and S stepped inside.

“Sorry for waking you up. I just got a message about an urgent new job and I need to brief everyone all on the way.” M just blinked up at S from her bed. “Not a morning person?” M silently shook her head. “Yeah, T too,” S chuckled, “I’ll give you a minute. Just come out to the table and I’ll have breakfast ready for everyone. You want coffee?”

M silently nodded again and S left. M took a moment before pulling herself out of bed and finding a pair of pants to pull on. She vaguely wondered how quickly they would reach this job and if she might have time for a shower before, but decided choices were better made once caffeine was in her system.

When M walked into the common area she saw C and S already sitting at the table. C was sipping something out of a mug that smelled like nothing M had smelled before in between bites of cereal. S was focused on her holo-screen and sucking a green smoothie through a straw. An empty bowl and a steaming mug each sat in front of both M and T’s empty chairs and as M sat she saw bowls of sugar and cream.

“You need to program how you like your coffee,” S explained as M sat, “If he gives you cream and sugar then Art doesn’t know how you take it. T, for example, takes more cream and sugar than coffee and Art adds it for her.”

“Thanks,” M said as she sat back in the chair and gulped down black coffee.

“Art, please tell T her coffee is getting cold,” S said absentmindedly. A ping rang from above them and a minute later T appeared, still in her pajamas, and blearily blinking at the brightness of the room. She sat cross-legged in her chair and leaned her upper body over the table to the point where she was almost laying on it. Slowly, she pulled the mug over to her and took a long drink.

S shook her head slightly, but then launched into the briefing, “Anyway, I got a comm about an urgent job today. We’re on our way to Chagutfi now-”

“Is it about the serial killer?” C interrupted.

“Serial killer?” M asked. T nodded.

“You know too?” M asked.

“How do any of you know?” S asked, “They’ve been trying to keeping it quiet.”

“It’s me,” C said, “I know everything running through the Authority’s systems and that has been a big one lately. T studies that stuff so I passed it along.”

“You study it?” M asked.

“Gotta know how to take down any type of killer,” T croaked in between sips of coffee.

“Anyway,” S said again, trying to get the women back on track. She stuck a data chip into the table and Authority reports on the murders appeared as holograms before them. “Yes, Chagutfi has as serial killer. It’s just a little moon, but it has a pretty decent sized city and they are all terrified. There have been 12 murders and not even a hint of who could be behind it.”

“How are the victims connected?” M asked, reaching out to the hologram and swiping through victim photos.

“They aren’t,” S shrugged.

“Nothing?” M asked.

“Nope,” C sighed.

“As far as the Authority can tell, the only thing these beings have in common is that they all lived in the capital city,” S said.

“How’d they die?” M asked.

“They don’t know that either,” T said.

“I’m sorry, what?” M leaned to shoot T a dumbfounded look around the hologram.

“It’s complicated, apparently, local Authority said they’d explain once we got there, but they have no idea what the murder weapon is,” C elaborated.

“So basically, we’re going to play detective, on a moon, where anyone could be the next target by some unknown means?” M asked.

“That’s why they called us,” S nodded.

~

“Who is ready for Chagutfi?!” T yelled in a singsong voice as she bounced into Art Two, the last of the four to arrive. S raised her eyebrows, but smiled while C and M laughed.

“You’re more awake now,” M said.

“Coffee is a miracle worker,” T grinned, “Hey S, can I sit up there?” She nodded to the front passenger seat where S was already strapped in.

“What? Why?” S asked.

“Caffeine has me bouncing, being able to look out the front makes me feel more engaged,” T said.

“Uh, okay,” S said and unstrapped to go sit by C in the back. T plopped down on the front passenger seat next to M and strapped in. She activated her holo-screen and remotely connected it to the shuttle as M steered out of Art’s hangar. Music began playing through Art Two’s speakers.

“Oh I love this song,” C exclaimed. An upbeat electronic rhythm accompanied them as the moon drew closer and T began singing along with the artist. C swayed back and forth dancing as much as she could in her seat and even S tapped her foot. As the chorus came T directed exaggerated dance moves and facial expressions at M making her laugh.

“I’m trying to fly!” M joked, but was tapping her fingers in time to the music. T just raised her eyebrows and grinned at her continuing her ridiculous dancing making everyone laugh. They broke through the clouds above a large city. M joined the traffic of shuttles and ships flying through the air over the buildings. As they approached the city center M pointed toward the ground and asked, “What is that?” T looked to where M was pointing and saw a huge expanse of glass that started at the city level and slanted down to a walkway that lined the edge of a huge river. A zigzagging path was cut into the glass and lead from the top down to the walkway so beings could walk down to the river.

“That would be the Glass Waterfall,” C said, as she walked up behind the two women to look down at it, grabbing onto the handle in the ceiling.

“Yes my good beings, if you look down you will see one of the highlight tourist attractions on Chagutfi,” T explained as she adopted the voice of an over friendly tour guide. “The city built it as a way to make the river a more popular place to visit. As you can see the glass slants down from above to resemble a waterfall, but allows easy access through it so you can enjoy your descent down before you have a quiet walk along the river’s edge.” C was chuckling while M grinned as T finished flourishing her hand toward the art piece.

“You are far too good at that voice,” M teased.

“I have many talents,” T joked.

“We’re here,” S joined C and pointed to a building on the right towering over the river. A large holographic sign at the top displayed the symbol of The Authority. M turned the shuttle over to a large opening in the top and carefully steered the shuttle inside. A bot flew out to meet them and directed them to an open area where M could land. When they exited the shuttle the bot was waiting for them.

“Business code?,” a electronic voice emitted from the machine.

“67T25C,” S said to it. The bot sat quietly for a moment while the team watched.

“Please follow,” it announced. It turned and flew in the direction of a bank of lifts at the end of the hangar.

“Code?” M asked S quietly as they walked.

“The Authority doesn’t allow just anybody into their buildings,” S explained, “When we actually get called in we are given basically a confirmation code that gets us in the building.”

“Also helps us get in without having to tell everyone we’re Prism,” C pointed out.

“Because 4 women arriving in the middle of a crisis is definitely not a massive tip off,” T muttered as she nodded and smiled at other beings staring at them while following their own bot in the opposite direction. “And what do you have in that thing, S?” T nodded down to a large case S was carrying.

“A few things I’ll may need for examining bodies,” S said.

“Shouldn’t they have their own equipment?” M asked.

“Mine’s better,” S said simply and T chuckled.

After a lift ride down three floors, they followed the bot down another hallway with huge windows that let sunlight light the area. They noticed a few more stares and whispers from various Authority officers and beings before the bot stopped in front of large glass doors.

“I have sent notice of your arrival. Wait here” it instructed. After a moment, the door opened to reveal a large man with a beard and kind face.

“Long time no see! Please, come in sit down,” he grinned, and moved to the side holding the door.

“Good to see you again Director Bilmark,” S said as the team walked inside and the director closed the door behind them.

“You too, though I can’t say I miss being stationed up on ships anymore,” Director Bilmark said as he took a seat behind his desk and gestured to the chairs set around the front.

“Director Bilmark was Prism’s prisoner transfer contact when I first joined the team,” S told the rest of the team, “The job Jesper has now.” The other women nodded or made soft noises of comprehension as they all took seats.

“So that’s why you’ve called us in,” T said, “Murder mysteries are not usually something The Authority contacts us for.”

“No, I know it’s unusual,” Director Bilmark sighed, “But being the transfer contact I’ve had first hand experience of what your team can do and I didn’t have many more options. We are dealing with someone who is very good at not getting caught and in my experience that’s when The Authority would call you folks in. But this time, instead of a criminal on run we have one who is basically invisible.”

“So it’s true you have no idea how the victims are being picked,” M said.

“All different backgrounds, all different neighborhoods,” the Director nodded, “They aren’t even the same type of beings.”

“And the cause of death?” C asked. The Director sighed again hit the screen on his watch. He pushed his chair back to clear the team’s view of a large screen behind his desk where an image of a being resembling a human, obviously deceased, appeared on screen. The victim had no cuts, or marks of any kind. There were no outward signs of violence.

“Looking at this I would think poison, but my medical examiner says no. There has been nothing foreign introduced to the body as far as they can tell, but each being’s internal organs were shredded and they bled out internally.” He explained.

“Shredded?” T asked, raising her eyebrows and leaning forward in her chair, “What?”

“Yeah we have no idea how that happened,” the Director said, “As I said, they have found nothing foreign in any of the bodies. It’s like they just exploded from the inside, but the skin is still intact.”

“I will definitely need access to these bodies.” S said.

“Most have been returned to loved ones, but we do have the latest victim in our morgue downstairs. They’re all yours.”

“Do you still have electronics from all the victims?” C asked.

“We cloned the devices, but gave the original ones back. We went through those thoroughly and didn’t find any sort of tracker that didn’t belong. You have full access to the clones,” the Director said.

“Pardon me for saying, but you are being very forthcoming. Many Authority officers can be very territorial about their investigations.” T said.

“Believe me, if someone else had assigned you here I might be too, but I am the one who called you in. I would rather have you fibd we missed something and stop this being than be resistant. If someone else dies, and I did nothing, then it would stay with me forever.” The Director explained, “Prism found every being I sent them when I was in contact, this one is the most important to me. This is my home now, I have a family here. I need this killer caught.”

“We can do that,” M nodded.

“Thank you. I’ll get started on S and I’m assuming C’s requests, but is there anything the two of you need?” Director Bilmark directed the question to T and M.

“T,” the Orgori offered, “And yes, access to the latest victim’s home?” T said, “Is it still a crime scene? We could go take a look around.”  
Director Bilmark nodded, “That’s not a problem. I’ll have Officer Stanis take you there. Speaking of I’m assigning her as your liaison specifically for this job. She’s knows you are Prism and I trust her. She will be able to help you with anything you may need around this headquarters or Chagutfi. I’ve also set up a place for you to stay the night. I would hope that you wouldn’t need to use it, but I think that’s optimistic.”

“Thank you, we appreciate that,” S said. The director nodded and pushed the screen of his watch.

“Officer Stanis, could you please come in?” he said. A moment later the door opened to reveal a young woman with light brown skin wearing a Authority uniform. She had long, pointed ears poking out of her dark hair which was pull back into a ponytail.

“Officer Stanis, this is Prism, like I mentioned earlier, make sure they have everything they need while they’re here,” the Director instructed. Officer Stanis nodded and shook each of the team member’s hands while giving them a glowing smile.

“Please anything you need, call me. Whether it’s files, transport, food, I can get it for you,” she said energetically.

“Food? No, you’re an officer, we don’t want to treat you like an assistant,” M said.

“No, no, please it’s my pleasure,” Officer Stanis reassured her, “I’ve been an admirer of Prism for a long time. I can’t believe you’re actually real, let alone I’m meeting you. Anything I can do to help you, please let me know.

“Well first things, I need to go down to the morgue,” S told her patting her case.

“Great let’s get you all set up in a lab and we can take it from there,” Officer Stanis walked towards the door as the team stood and followed. Director Bilmark stood and walked around his desk, shaking each of their hands as they passed.

“Thank you again,” he told them.  
Officer Stanis led them back to the lift and they traveled down several floors. When the doors reopened, they found a hallway just as brightly lit as the last, but artificially and with the distinct cleanliness of scientific labs. She led them down to a door and revealed a large multi-purpose laboratory.

“I will have the latest body brought to you here,” Stanis told S as she activated her holo-screen and began typing on it. S thanked her and put her case on a counter and began unpacking the equipment inside.

“Would I also be able to get the cloned electronics brought here as well?” C asked. Stanis nodded and hurriedly typed on the screen again.

“Anything I can help the two of you with?” She asked T and M.

“A small shuttle please?” M asked. “Ours is not built for inter-city landings.”

“Along with the address of the most recent victim and images from the past crime scenes please,” T added, “So we can compare.”  
Stanis nodded and asked, “Can you give me an holo-screen address I can send them to?” T opened up her own holo-screen and pressing all five of her fingers to the screen she swiped upward in Stanis’s direction. A blocked contact form popped up requiring an access code. “Oh, uh-” Stanis hesitated, looking confused and holding her arm out so T could see the screen.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” T entered in a short code into Stanis’s screen and the contact form opened up. “We don’t exactly want anyone to have our information so we have a few security measures.”

“Of course, that makes sense,” Stanis nodded, tapping her screen. “All right the images and address have been sent to you. And we can give you one of the Authority’s two seater shuttles to borrow.”

“Thank you,” M smiled. Officer Stanis repeated the contact transfer with S so she could send her the autopsy files on the victims. As she asked T and M to follow her up to the shuttle hangar, the body and a box of electronics arrived. The team said goodbye as S and C began digging into their work and Stanis led the other two up to a small spherical pod.

“We haven’t changed anything there besides removing the body. So everything is how we found it. Good luck and just call if you need anything,” she grinned as she handed M the start-up codes for the pod and turned back to the lifts.

“She is far too cheery and adorable to be an Authority officer,” T joked as they climbed into the pod.

M laughed as she input the start-up codes and the shuttle rose to hover off the ground, “I’m sure she’s a force to be reckoned with. Hasn’t anyone assumed you couldn’t beat someone up?”

T snorted with laughter, “Only back home. Out here everyone just sees I’m Ongori and backs off.” M chuckled while she directed the shuttle to the exit.

~

T and M cleared the Authority selperm and walked through the latest victim’s apartment using T’s morphing key. The were presented with a room brightly lit by large windows on the far end of the room. On each side there were doorways, the left leading to a kitchen and to the right, a hallway with two doors branching leading off of it. The walls were painted bright green and the furniture was honeysuckle yellow. The colors matched well together and seemed to radiate its own light so it seems like the room was almost glowing. It looked lived in, comfortable, and cared for by someone who was happy.

“It’s nice,” M said, walking over to look of the windows on the other side.

“Do those open?” T asked.

“Yeah it looks like, but I don’t think anyone could have gotten in,” M replied looking out. T joined her at the window, and saw the 12 story stretch of smooth stone down to the street.

“Yeah, maybe,” T nodded. She activated her holo-screen and began swiping through crime scene photos. “She was found in the bathroom. Let’s head there.” They walked down the hallway.  
The door to their left was a bedroom with more large windows and to the right they found a spacious bathroom. The floor was littered with various toiletries that T, checking the crime scene photo, said must have been knocked off when she died.

“They found no evidence anyone had been in here with her. No one on security cameras downstairs. They checked the carpet and rugs for foot imprints. And even then, no visible harm to the body out all,” T shrugged, “It’s just so weird.”

“I mean maybe it was poison?” M asked, “It could have been delayed.”

“They said they didn’t find any evidence of that, that’s why we’re here. I wouldn’t be surprised if S couldf find some weird poison that hadn’t been invented like with that virus, but it just doesn’t seem like that.” T shook her head. “From the way they’ve described how the bodies were torn up inside, it sounds like a weapon, but no evidence of what kind to inflict those types wounds. Or the being actually being here to wield it.” She sighed and opened an app on her screen. “Here get behind me.”

“What are you gonna do?” M asked.

“Little trick C taught me.” T pulled out a small device scanning device of her utility belt. M watched over T’s shoulder as she hit a red button on the device. A red light burst from the end of it and widened so it fit into the floor to ceiling dimensions of the bathroom. Slowly it moved left to right, scanning the room.

“What’s it doing?” M asked.

“Scanning for heat signatures,” T explained, “C invented this lil thing so it will pick up signatures from days ago. Helps when we are tracking down fugitives. If we know there were at a location, we can see how long ago.”

“So we can see if there was another being here,” M inferred.

“Exactly,” T nodded, “Even if they are a being that doesn’t give off a heat signature then we can at least see what happened to the victim and tell if she was alone or not.” The red light reached the opposite end of the room and disappeared back into the device. A slow revolving circle appeared on T’s screen and the two women stood silently waiting. Finally a 3D image of the bathroom before them materialized on the screen. A bar with a dot on the right hand end appeared below. T held down the dot and moved it slightly to the left. Two human shapes, one orange and one blood red, walked into the room.

“That’s us,” T pointed at the shapes, she pointed at the orange shape, “That’s you.”

“Why are you red and I’m orange?” M asked.

“I’m hotter,” T grinned, “No pun intended. My body temp is just higher than yours.” M shook her head and gave a small smirk at T’s pun. T held down the dot again and moved it back a swarm of red, orange, and many other colors, even blue swarmed the bathroom.

“The Authority,” M assumed and T nodded, the swarm lasted for a good length along the bar. Finally it stopped and there was just a blue mass, a body. They both knew without saying, it was the deceased woman, lying along the floor. As T kept moving the dot backward, the color changed from blue, to yellow, to red. A red mass suddenly flew out of the sink faucet and back to the body. They watched in reverse as the woman stood from her fallen position and seemed to be struggling. The red mass appeared again from the body and funneled into the faucet.

“What was that?” M asked. T slowly shook her head as her mouth hung slightly open. She positioned the dot right before the attack and pressed a play button in the top left corner. M moved closer to T so she could watch better. This time they got a full replay of the scene, how it actually happened. The red mass spewed out of the faucet and seemed to fly into the woman’s face. Her body doubled over and seemed to claw at her chest and head as she struggled, and knocked items off her counter as though reaching for something. Ultimately, she failed. She fell to the ground and the red mass streamed from the woman and back into the sink faucet.

“I have no idea,” T answered M’s question.

“Can this zoom in?” M asked. T nodded and used two fingers, spreading them on the screen to enlarge the image so the woman was the center of the screen. “Can you go back please?” M asked. T went back to the beginning of the attack and pressed play again. They watched the scene over, but up close. When the woman fell to the floor again and the red mass separated itself again, M reached out and tapped the screen pausing it.

“What?” T asked. M zoomed in on the mass this time. This time they could see a thin layer of blue circles enveloping the red.

“It’s not one entity, it’s a swarm,” M said.

“Of what?” T asked, “Bugs?”

M shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe, or nanobots.”

T turned her head to M for the first time after staring at the screen for so long, “Would nanobots even give off that heat signature, even with the metal outer shell?”

“Every machine gives off heat, no matter what,” M nodded.

“We have to go show C and S,” T sent the video to the other teammates before deactivating her screen and the two women rushed out of the apartment.

~

In the Authority’s lab, C sat at a table with a dozen electronic devices in a box in front of her. One by one she was connecting them to Art’s computer far above them so her massive computer could go through each of them quickly and try to find similar patterns in each, hopefully finally discovering a connection between all the victims.

S was on the other side of the room, bent low over the body of the latest victim. She was a woman, with bright yellow hair, not blonde like S’s, bright, sunshine yellow. S knew, if her eyes were open, her pupils would be the same color, but her eyelids stayed closed and still in death. Her origins must be from Zondesber, whether she grew up here or came as an adult, S knew she could look up, but didn’t find it pertinent at the moment. She turned to a small table next to the slab where she had placed the case she brought and opened it. It was a smaller version of the diagnostic machine on Art. She pulled a long clear syringe out of the case. Carefully she inserted the needle into a vein in the victim’s arm and drew a long length of blood and inserted the syringe into the machine which started whirring as it analyzed the sample.

“Can’t you just hook her up like you did with M and I and analyze everything?” C asked. S looked up to see C was distracted from the devices and watching her.

“No because her blood isn’t pumping, if I tried to put it back into her body it wouldn’t go anywhere,” S explained.

“Ew,” C scrunched her nose.

“In that case, then why don’t you leave this to me and you keep working on those,” S nodded to the several devices C still had to connect. C rolled her eyes, but with a fond smile she pulled the next device out.

“How’s it going?” S jumped a little at the new voice. C looked up to see Officer Stanis in the doorway. Welcoming another distraction from her somewhat tedious task, she grinned at the young Authority officer.

“Good! T and M get off all right?” C asked.

Officer Stanis nodded, “Yup a little while ago, but I thought I would come back here and see if there was anything either of you needed.”

“No, as we said before we just needed the devices and the body,” S said flatly. C knew that she wasn’t trying to be mean, she just wanted to concentrate on her work, but Stanis’s face fell a little.

Wanting to perk her up so she could have someone to talk to while working C asked, “You said you were a fan of Prism?” Stanis quickly switched her attention back to C and brightened.

“Yes! Every since I was little,” she told C. C nodded to the stool across from her and Stanis took it.

“How did you hear about the team?” C asked.

“Prism caught my father,” Stanis said bluntly.

“Most family members of beings we caught don’t become fans,” S chimed in absentmindedly as she watched her portable machine.

“No, I’m sure,” Stanis nodded, “But he…. well he deserved it.” Stanis trailed off and C knew better than to push the subject. “But ever since then I’ve been interested. I follow a few network groups that are fans as well.”

“We have fan groups?” S asked, sounding annoyed.

“Oh yeah,” C laughed, “There are even a couple dedicated to figuring out who we actually are.”

“What?” S snapped.

“Don’t worry, I go in there from time to time and plant false leads. They aren’t even close,” C snickered. S huffed and turned back to work.

“Uh, don’t worry I don’t belong to any of those groups,” Stanis said cautiously. C smiled and S made a clicking sound with her tongue and continued working.

“Why’d you want to join Prism?” Stanis asked C, with a cheery tone of voice, obviously trying to change the subject.

“Well, I’d actually never heard of Prism before I applied,” C said, “I found a puzzle online that I wanted to solve and when I did it led to an application.”

“She solved it faster than anyone before, it wasn’t a difficult choice,” S said.

“Thanks,” C blushed a little, “But I suppose once I knew what it was I wanted to join because it was like me a little. I never felt like I belonged at home, but I never felt like I belonged away from it. I’m this weird sort of middle ground that Prism fits into as well.”

“Yeah, I definitely understand that,” Stanis nodded and smiled. She turned over to S. “And uh, why did you- if you don’t mind, if you’re not too busy I mean-” She sputtered.

“Prism found me. I never applied. I was looking for a new job and had received several offers when one day these three women showed up at my door. They said they had seen my work on experimental rapid healing techniques and thought that Prism would be a good place to develop it. They needed it because rapid healing comes in handy when you are chasing bad beings on a weekly basis. It was mutually beneficial.”

“That’s it? It was good job?” Stanis asked, almost sounding a little disappointed.

“Yeah, it wasn’t an easy choice, leaving my entire family and even my identity behind, but they had the best equipment and technology. We develop it ourselves and aren’t tied down by rules and regulations.” S explained, then sighed. “This isn’t working, the machine is giving me nothing. There are no foreign elements in the bloodstream, no disease, no poison”. She pulled out a another syringe, but this time it had a yellow liquid in it.

“What’s that?” Stanis asked.

“Something I’ve been working on. If there is anything in her body that doesn’t belong it will make it light up when I do a body scan. The problem is I need to get her blood pumping. Do you have an ventricular pump here?”

“Uh, I’ll find you one,” Stanis said and left the room.

~

“It’s nanobots!” M yelled as she burst into the examination room back at Authority Headquarters.

“Or bugs,” T added, coming up behind M. S and C stared at them surprised at their sudden appearance.

“It’s nanobots,” S said with finality.

“How do you know?” T asked.

“Because I just found one,” S said pointing at the screen on the wall, where a magnified nanobot was displayed.

“Oh,” M and T said together staring at it.

“Your video helped, I had found a few foreign highlighted areas in the body, but managed to narrow what I was looking for and found it almost immediately,” S crossed her arms and stared at the screen too.

“So now we at least know what’s killing beings,” C sighed, “Now we just need to know who. Did you find anything at the apartment that might point us in their direction?”

“Whoever it was, I don’t think they ever got near the apartment,” M shrugged. “The bots came through the sink.”

“That’s very smart. Control the bots remotely and never need to get near the victim,” S said.

“C, could you trace that bot back to the owner?” T asked.

“That’s what I’m working on now,” C said and she held up a small glass bottle. M walked closer and saw the bottle had a cork plug with what looked like a needle sticking in the top.

“What is it?” M asked bending over to look at it.

“It’s the nanobot,” C explained, looking slightly confused.

“Right, but what is it?” T bent down too.

“Oh, well I’ve been scanning it, trying to read the software and it hasn’t been very forthcoming. It looks like this one got damaged and malfunctioned. Probably why it was still in the victim.”

“So you might not be able to get anything off it at all?” M asked.

“Let alone trace it back to the killer?” T followed.

“Uh yeah, no, that’s not looking likely,” C deflated, “But I was at least able to get some good images of it. She pointed her holo-screen toward the large screen in the room and swiped upward. An image of an extreme close up of the nanobot appeared. It looked like little more than a round pellet of metal, but on one side of it….

“Are those teeth?” M asked. They could see a few rows of minutely jagged edges pointing out of the side of the bot.

“Sort of,” C cocked her head to the side, “It definitely looks like they are meant to cause some damage.”

“So these bots, will find a person and just cut them a bunch of times?” T asked.

“Shreds them, would be the more accurate term,” S said. They all looked over to her in shock. “When I injected the body with that serum in it, it didn’t only highlight foreign objects, but it also points out abnormalities and her entire lungs, heart, and parts of her brain had been ripped through. It was difficult to even get the ventricular pump to work, because she just had no systems for blood to run through.” 

“But all inside, no outer effects?” M asked.

S nodded, “Yes from the heat signature video they seemed to fly at her face. My guess is they enter the body through nasal cavities, the mouth, and ears, and just decimate the the internal organs and exit the same way.”

“That sounds like a terrible way to die,” T said, “You can’t even fight it, you’re helpless.”

“Yes,” S frowned and covered the body with a sheet.

“So, how are we going to find this being?” M asked, “If we can’t get anything off the bot then what’s next?”

“I didn’t say we couldn’t get anything,” C said, “From the style and the type of hardware inside I can tell these are short range bots and they need to be constantly controlled. They aren’t sophisticated enough to just have someone press a button miles away and just go eat a sandwich.”

“As one does when one murders,” T said sarcastically.

“Ha ha,” C rolled her eyes, “Anyway, with each murder they would had to have been close by. So we should check any security cameras outside the buildings. We can run facial recognition software up in Art’s systems and see if anyone shows up at the buildings more than once, maybe scouting a good spot, or someone who shows up at multiple locations.”

“That will take hours,” T groaned, “We will have to rule out anyone who lives or works in each building which means we need a list of all those beings and even then it might be someone who does live in the building.”

“I can help with that!” A voice said by the door. The team turned to see Officer Stanis. “Welcome back! I got an alert that the shuttle had returned and came to see if you all needed anything. I can get the list of residents and I don’t mind helping you go through it.”

“Thank you!” C smiled, “Luckily as long as we get the lists we can upload them to Art and he can do most of the work.”

“Still gonna take hours,” T grumbled.

“I can help you,” M offered to Stanis.

“Great thank you!” Stanis smiled. “Need anything else?” The team glanced at each other shaking their heads and Stanis ducked out of the room with M following.

~

The room where Prism sat in the Authority headquarters was quiet except for the occasional sound of someone shifting in their seat or a beep of a holo-screen watch. Stanis and M had compiled a list of names and photos off all the residents and employees in each buildings where a victim lived. C uploaded the lists and security footage up to Art before continuing taking apart and analyzing the nanobot. S began going through all the victim’s medical files to try and find some sort of connection there. They all had been working for hours and though the room had no windows they knew that it was dark outside and had been for a long while.

T, M, and Stanis were going through any anomalies in the facial recognition that Art spotted. The computer would occasionally send them a name and face of a being they saw multiple times that wasn’t on the lists. One of the women would then research them. Most of the time the being just lived or worked in the building next door and didn’t show up in security footage from other buildings. The entire room had worked themselves into a monotonous stupor.

S had to re-read the same line several times before really understanding it. C kept nodding off and M leaned back in her chair to stretch her back and ended up just laying there, staring at the ceiling. Art hadn’t sent them a new name in a few minutes, and T was still researching her last name while Stanis patiently waited for the next.

Deciding to distract herself, Stanis turned to T, “Why did you join Prism?” T glanced up from her holo-screen, her brain seemed to have trouble switching focus.

“What?” T asked.

“I was just wondering why you joined Prism,” Stanis shrugged.

T took a deep breath and cocked her head, “Why are you asking us all that?”

Stanis looked a little taken aback, “What do you mean?”

“When you were getting the lists C told me you were curious about their reasons for wanting to join Prism. Why do you want to know?”

“Just… curious,” Stanis stumbled over her words. T raised her eyebrows and stared Stanis down. The officer stared back, but wavered. “I guess I wanted to compare them with my reason, for wanting to join, I mean. I guess… I want to know if it’s a good reason.”

“I mean, I don’t think anyone could really have a bad reason. It’s just their reason, it can’t be defined as bad or good,” T speculated.

“Yeah, I guess,” Stanis nodded, but scrunched her nose in a way that made her seem dissatisfied.

“Well what is it, your reason?” T asked.

Stanis glanced down at the table while taking a deep breath, “Did C tell you about my dad?”

“Yup,” T nodded, “She said you didn’t say why though.”

“He was not a good person,” Stanis said, “He hurt my mom, me, other beings. He deserved to be caught. I was there when it happened.” Stanis shifted uncomfortably in her seat and glanced around. T followed her eyesight and saw S still staring at her holo-screen, but frozen, listening in. Next to her, M had tilted her head toward Stanis to listen in. The only one who wasn’t interested was C whose head had finally found the crook of her arm and was breathing slow in sleep.

“If you’re not comfortable with telling me this, it’s okay,” T assured Stanis.

“No it’s all right,” Stanis said, but stared at her hands, “So I was there. He had run, stolen a spaceship and brought my mom and I with him. We were in the middle of nowhere where these four women just appeared. I’d never seen anything like it. They were strong, and fearless, or at least seemed like it, and capable. They knew what they were doing. He tried to fight back, but one of them incapacitated him in two moves.

“It’s hard to explain why it affected me so much, but it was like I had waited my entire life to see something like that. My dad had isolated my mom and I and my mom never stood up to him. I had never really seen a woman do something like that and it was like in that moment I realized that I could do it too.

“So I joined the Authority. The dream will always be Prism, but here I feel like I can be that person I saw. I can face terrible things and take them down. It was empowering and that’s why I want to join. I want to be like that, to feel like that; to feel like I’m that person too.” Stanis finished her story and didn’t look at anyone in the room. No one said anything as her story sunk in. T nodded and let out a breath. Stanis looked up at her and T met her gaze.

“Well I think if anyone were to ever have a good reason, that would be the best one,” T told her.

“Yeah?” Stanis asked, smiling sheepishly.

“Yeah,” said M giving her a warm smile as both women looked at her with slight surprise at her sudden entrance into the conversation. T looked back down at her holo-screen before groaning and putting her head in her hands.

“I can’t do this anymore, I’m losing my mind!” she groaned.

“I think,” S said from across the room, “We should all get some sleep.”

“C’s already there,” T teased. M snorted in laughter and stretched looking up at the pipes that ran along the ceiling.

“Pipes!” M shouted as she jolted upright.

“What?! I’m awake,” C sprang up out of sleep.

“Yeah, what?” T asked.

“The killer is using pipes,” M said slowly, with wide eyes.

“We know. The bots came through the sink- oh!” S’s eyes widened in realization.

“Still confused,” T said looking from M to S.

M stood up, “This is why we can’t find the killer in any videos. They’re using the pipes to send in the nanobots from the sewer. They could get to any place they wanted to without being seen by anyone!”

“Shit,” T whispered in realization.

“We need a map of the sewers,” S said.

“One sec,” Stanis said, and tapped rapidly on her holo-screen.

“You just have a map?” T said, raising her eyebrows..

“The Authority has access to hundreds of maps of the city. Here!” Stanis pointed her watch toward the large screen, swiped up, and the image appeared for everyone to see.

“Can you lay a street map over it?” M asked. After another moment of tapping and swiping Stanis overlaid a street map on the sewers.

“And then the crime scenes?” S caught on to what M was doing and moved closer. It took a bit longer, but Stanis marked a red dot on each place where a murder happened. M walked up to the screen and pointed at a large tunnel that criss-crossed across the sewer map.

“This tunnel goes under every building the victims lived in,” M said.

T sat bolt upright, “Did you just find the connection?”

“She did,” C said, joining everyone by the screen.

“Who has access to that tunnel?” S asked Stanis. The officer shrugged and shook her head.

“Probably hundreds of sewer workers,” she told the team. T groaned.

“That means more lists, doesn’t it?” she dropped her elbows on the table and her head fell into her hands. She rubbed her eyes in exhaustion.

“Yeah, but I can get it for you,” Stanis assured them.

“We all need some sleep first,” S announced, “This is a good breakthrough, but we will be useless unless we get some rest.”

“I’ll show you to where you can stay,” Stanis said, “We have an apartment down the block if we need to put anyone up. I’ll have the list ready for you in the morning.”

“Thank you,” C said.

“I don’t feel comfortable leaving this until morning,” M said, “What if someone else gets hurt?”

“We aren’t going to solve anything tonight,” S countered.

“What if…” C started and everyone turned to see her silently working through an idea, “What if we use bots against them? I’ll send my watch dogs down to the sewer to keep an eye out. If they detect anything out of the ordinary it will alert us.”

“Yeah that would work,” M nodded.

“So we’re sleeping?” T asked. S nodded, “Yes!” T hissed excitedly jumped up to follow S out of the room.

~

M woke up with a start. She wasn’t sure what woke her up and looked around hoping to find the culprit. She was in a small bedroom with a shade that covered window, lying on one side of a large bed, she’d fallen asleep in, still wearing yesterday’s clothes. She could hear voices from outside the bedroom. Turning to her left, saw T still sleeping, curled up with her back to M. When they arrived at the living quarters the night before and realized there were only two bedrooms, S and C took one and M and T took the other.

M swung her legs off the bed and padded over to the door, slowly opening it. The voices came from the kitchen. M quietly closed the door to the bedroom so she wouldn’t wake T and followed the sound of the voices across the main living area. There was a set of double doors at one end of the room. M could see a balcony outside as she looked to see the sun pouring through the glass into the room. She poked her head around the corner of some large, white sliding doors that sat open and saw S and C sitting across a table from Officer Stanis.

“Good morning,” Officer Stanis chirped brightly.

“How long did we sleep?” M asked plopping down on the chair next to the officer.

“Only a few hours,” S told her, “We were going to come get the two of you soon. Officer Stanis brought us the list of all the sewage workers. We should get back to work.” M looked over to C and saw her typing rapidly on her holo-screen and occasionally swiping the screen.

“Any luck yet?” M asked C.

“Nothing solid, just sorting through at the moment and the watch dogs haven’t picked up anything” C told her. M heard a noise and they all turned to see T drag feet into the kitchen.

“Oh good, we’ll all up, perfect,” S started, “I have a plan of what we should go through today-”

“S, please,” T interrupted, “Give me a minute to actually wake up.” She slumped into a chair at the end of the table.

“Yes, please,” M said, and pulled a metal jug that had the distinct smell of coffee coming from it toward her. Officer Stanis handed over two mugs, along with some sugar and cream from the other end of the table and M filled both mugs and handed one and the sugar and cream over to T.

“We’re after a serial killer,” S quipped, “We took the time we needed to sleep and now we’re on the clock again,”

“I don’t remember punching in,” T said as she sipped from her mug. M snorted into her own and tried to disguise it as a cough.

“I’m just saying we shouldn’t waste time, now that we’re awake,” S said pointedly.

“I’ll get right on that,” T said and leaned back in her chair and taking a deep drink of coffee. Again, M couldn’t help, but smile as she looked over to C, who was smiling slyly herself while still focused on her holo-screen. Even Officer Stanis, who hadn’t known the group very long could sense that the sharp words were just light-hearted banter between friends and was trying to hide an obvious grin.

“Oh never mind, please finish that coffee, because at least your snark levels seem to go down when you’re not tired,” S sighed. C, M, and Stanis laughed loudly at that and T seemed to lose all steam as she admitted defeat and quietly continued with her drink. The room fell silent broken only by C’s typing, but after a moment she stopped.

“What is that?” C asked.

“What?” S turned to her.

“That noise,” C said. They all froze and tried to listen.

“I don’t hear anything,” Officer Stanis said. C snapped her head to stare directly at Officer Stanis before she slowly leaned to the side to stare past her. Officer Stanis just as slowly turned around and followed C’s gaze. The rest of the team joined and they all saw C staring at the faucet of the kitchen sink. A loud noise blared from C’s watch making everyone jump.

“The watch dogs!” C exclaimed, grabbing the device.

“Wha-” S began, but cut off as the faucet since started shaking slightly. Everyone turned their attention back to it as T slammed her mug on the table and jumped up.

“Get out,” T shouted and ran for the door just as a swarm of tiny microbots came spurting out of the faucet and rushed toward them. The women jumped up and all sprinted to the door. Officer Stanis was the last into the living room and as soon as she cleared the doors T slammed a button on the wall and the kitchen door slammed shut.

“Okay we need to leave,” T told everyone, “I set off the fire precautions so the room is going to seal off, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a way through.”

“I’ll get all my bots underneath this building and try to get eyes on what’s happening,” C said, and her finger rapidly slid across her holo-screen.

“I have my shuttle here,” Officer Stanis moved toward the door, “We can head back to Authority headquarters and- ah!” The officer stopped in her tracks and her hand flew to her chest.

“What is it?” S pushed her way past T and M to stand in front of Stanis.

“Nothing, I think, just a weird pa- ah!” Stanis cried out again and her hand flew to her throat.

“Don’t move!” S rushed over to her bag she dropped on the couch a few hours ago. 

“No! We need to get out of here,” T told her. S ignored her. She pulled out her holo-screen and a stylus and clicked the end. A blue beam of light erupted from the front end and the light formed around Officer Stanis. S moved it to her neck just as Stanis gasped and dropped to her knees. M rushed to sit behind her to hold her up.

“One of the bots, got to her! I see it,” S said holding up the stylus and looking at her holo-screen. “It’s ripping through her systems. It’s just one so it’s taking longer to kill her, but it’s going to! C, how can we stop it?”

“I can hack in on the frequency and stop it, someone else needs to take the cameras,” C said. 

T pulled out her holo-screen and opened up the program C had installed so she could watch C’s watch dogs flying through the sewer system below the city. C sat on the couch and began typing furiously.

“Hurry up, C, it’s small, but it’s quick,” S’s voice shook. M was the only thing stopping Stanis from collapsing to the floor. There was a small trickle of blood coming out of her nose and M could hear gurgling sounds whenever the officer tried to breathe. The doors leading to the kitchen gave a small shake.

“Hurry!” T instructed.

“Almost there,” C said. S dug through her bag and pulled out her little medical spray gun. She wiped blood away from Stanis’s face as she sprayed a small bit of foam into the officer’s mouth and looked back to her holoscreen.

“You need to stop it C, it’s ripping her apart just as fast as I can heal her,” S’s voice had the steady doctor’s tone, but with an urgent edge. Stanis slowly laid her head back onto M’s shoulder, eyes fluttering.

“Don’t do that, we’ve got you, you’re okay. Stay with us,” M told her. Stannis gave a minute nod. Her hands were shaking and M grabbed one. “We got ya.”

“Almost got it,” C whispered, a little panicked. Stanis tried to take in a air, but all they could hear was a soft gurgle. Blood was now running out of her nose, mouth, and ears.

“No,” They heard S whisper, still helplessly staring at her holo-screen. Stanis’s hand slackened and M shook it.

“No, come on, C’s almost there,” M told her. Stanis’s eyes had glazed over and the gurgling sounds had stopped. The entire room seemed to still, even the growing sounds of the other bots from behind the door deadened, as all four of them stared at the women in M’s arms.

“Is she-” M asked. S reached to feel Stanis’s pulse. 

“Yeah,” S breathed before closing her eyes and shaking her head. The door to the kitchen gave another rattle and with a jump, C broke from staring sadly at Stanis and continued working on holo-screen. M looked at T who was staring angrily at Stanis. 

T’s watch beeped. She looked down to find her own hands were shaking. On the holo-screen she could see man standing in a sewer holding his own device. He turned and saw the cameras and tapped the pad before running in the opposite direction down the sewer. The bots behind the kitchen door silenced. T’s shaking stopped and she felt anger building in her chest.

“Got him,” T growled. She pulled her comm out of her pocket and inserted it into her ear. She deactivated her holo-screen as she ran over to the double doors leading to the balcony and ripped them open.

“Guide me,” she shouted at S and with a running jump, she swung over the railing of the balcony. M cried out, dropping Stanis and ran over to where T disappeared. She gripped the railing and peered over the edge just in time to see T land on her feet and break into a run. M turned her head to the left, following T, aghast.

“She can do that?” M asked, turning back to S and C.

“What?” S asked not looking up from the video image she opened on her own holo-screen, “Oh, jump like that? Yeah, especially when she’s angry.”

“I’m going to follow her, in case she needs help,” M ran for the front door of the apartment, digging her own comm out of her pocket.

“Good idea,” S nodded, still staring at the screen before her hand shot to her ear, “T! He took a right.”

M ran up the stairs as fast as she could. When she reached the rooftop shuttle parking, she bolted for the small Authority shuttle Stanis used to get here. She jumped inside and started it up. In the few moments before it was ready to take off M noticed the small switch on top of the dash labeled “Emergency lights”. She flipped it and the red light atop the shuttle began flashing. The shuttle lifted off and she turned it to follow T in time to hear S over the comms.

“T, you are right over him, but I can’t tell where he’s headed. Wait, he took a left.”

M turned the shuttle to the left and flew over the buildings, searching the ground. Finally she spotted T’s blue hair streaming behind her on the street. She lowered the shuttle to follow in between buildings, silently thanking Stanis for leaving the Authority shuttle knowing she wouldn’t be able to get this low without that flashing light.

“He stopped!” S’s voice sounded confused. M saw T stop and look around, most likely looking for sewer access. The only thing around her were buildings and in front of them was a large tiled, rectangular public area leading to an overlook of the river. T suddenly ran toward the public area as though she saw the man there. M followed as closely as she could.

“T! Get inside somewhere!” C’s voice came over the comms this time.

“What, why?” T asked.

“He’s launching the bots again! I don’t have control of them yet! Find someplace they can’t get in.” C said. T swung around looking for a good place, but didn’t see anything immediately. M saw a large empty area close to the river overlook and flew the shuttle over it and landed quickly. She swung the door open and called to T gesturing for her to get in. T spotted her and ran flat out for the shuttle. Just in front of her from a grate in the ground, a swarm of of bots rose, and flew straight for her.

T dove for the ground and rolled underneath the swarm, she sprang up and continued running, but the swarm corrected their course faster than she could. They overtook her and T fell to her knees as the bots used her mouth, nose, and ear without the comm to stream into her body.

“No!” M screamed and jumped down from the shuttle. She sprinted over to T, whose shout was cut off and she clutched her chest. M dropped in front of T and grabbed her shoulders. Frozen on the ground, T breathed heavily. M could see blue blood already trickling out of her nose.

“What’s happening? Can you feel them?” M asked, panicked.

“I don’t know,” T gasped, “I felt them moving for a minute, but it’s like they stopped.

M pressed her comm, “C what’s going on?” 

S’s voice responded instead, “Hold on, it’s like they are fighting over control right now.”

T closed her eyes and grabbed M’s wrist, squeezing it. M looked around to see if there were any access into the sewer, but just like T before, she couldn’t find anything. Instead she turned her focus back to T. She was still gripping her shoulders and rubbed one hand up and down T’s upper arm in an attempt to comfort her.

“Come on C,” M whispered.

“I won!” C yelled into the comms. Both T and M cried out in shock at the loud noise.

“Sorry,” C said more quietly, “And hold on T, this will probably feel weird.” T barely had time to brace herself before the bots came rushing back out of her mouth, nose, and ears, knocking the comm to the ground. She cried out in shock and coughed, spitting blood onto the ground.

“He’s on the move again!” M repeat to T what S said over the comms, “He turned down a tunnel that has sunlight, but there are bars covering it. Maybe he’ll going to try to squeeze through?” M stood up. “I’ll get him. Stay here, I’ll be back.”

“Oh, no... I know where he is” T said.

“What? Where? M asked. T didn’t answer, but instead sprang to her feet and rushed the overlook.

“T!” M called as for the second time in ten minutes, she watched T leap over the wall of the overlook. Grabbing T’s forgotten comm off the ground, she followed and saw that it wasn’t just an overlook. During the chase, she hadn’t noticed the art installation of slanted glass leading down to the river. Now T was on her side, sliding down the huge expanse of glass, with her arm thrown behind her for drag. She was rapidly approaching the drop off at the bottom which M could now see included a drain from a sewer. Just as T reached the bottom, a figure popped out from underneath the installation. T slammed into him, knocking him to the ground before rolling off and slamming into the side of the drain. 

~

T groaned, clutching her side, as she rolled over. Her adrenaline was doing its job by keeping the pain at bay, but it still felt as though she may have broken a rib. There was about half an inch of water running through the drain and she could feel it soaking into her hair and clothes. She looked around to the man and found him unconscious on the ground. She forced herself up, and pulled a secure bracelet she liked to keep on her wrist for surprise attacks like this one. She pulled his arms behind his back and wrapped the bracelet around them, before leaving him unconscious in the water, not really caring if he drowned. She was just climbing out of the drain when she saw M burst out of the walkway through the art piece.

“T!” She heard M call as she collapsed against the wall facing the river. M ran over and kneeled in front of her.

“Are you all right?” M gasped.

“I think my rib might be broken,” T whispered.

“It doesn’t hurt right?” M asked.

T shook her head, “I just feels weird.”

“S, we need you down by that Glass Waterfall thing,” M said into the comm.

“Already on the way,” S responded. T sighed and leaned her head back. M leaned over to look at the man in the drain.

“That was ridiculous, you know. I mean, amazing, but you could have died,” M half snapped, half breathed in awe.

T laughed, “No, I wouldn’t have died. You might have died, but not me.” M shook her head. They both sat in silence as T tried to take a few deep breaths.

“I got him,” T said suddenly.

“Yeah, good job,” M nodded.

“Too late,” T muttered softly.

M swallowed and tried to think of something to say, but was saved from doing so by S and C running out of the path through the Glass Waterfall. C ran over to the man while S began examining T and M explained what happened.

~

T hadn’t realized she fell asleep until about a moment after she woke up. Her eyes were still closed when the realization hit her and opened them to find the quiet med bay on Art. She remembered after S and C arrived at the waterfall, C took the man to the Authority to interrogate him and study his bots. M and S had loaded her onto a stretcher and flown her back to Art so S could heal her. S sedated T as she worked, but now everyone was gone. She hopped off the bed and headed for the lift.

“Art, where is M and S?” She asked.

“S is off ship. M is located in the common area,” Art’s cool voice responded. T climbed on the lift and directed it up to the common area. When the doors opened on the room she found the lights dimmed and a video playing on the large screen. The killer was handcuffed to a table and staring at a point off camera, barely blinking, barely moving. Off camera a voice was asking questions, how the bots worked, how he developed them, when he started. The killer just sat and stared. T slowly moved forward and heard the off camera voice again.

“I’m going to ask again, what was the point? What did you have to gain from all this?”

At this question the killer blinked and took a deep breath before answering, “You asked this and I’ve answered, I wanted to.”

“You were just bored one day and decided to kill beings?” The off camera voice asked.

“I got bored and wanted to develop my bots. One day I decided to see what I could do with them.” The killer responded.

“You could have done a lot of things with the bots, why killing?” Off camera asked.

“It was an experiment, how different species of beings reacted to different improvements. That’s all,” the killer responded.

“And then you went after Prism,” the interrogator asked.

“I planted a listening device in the Authority and knew they weren’t getting close to finding me. When Prism came and discovered my means of deployment by the sewer, I took action.”

“You didn’t want to get caught, so you know you were doing something wrong,” the interrogator suggested.

“I believe in court that is called leading a witness. And no, but I knew that the law wouldn’t see them simply as experiments,” The killer settled into the chair and went back to staring off camera.

“He’s not exactly forthcoming,” said a different voice, just in front of T. She jumped. She’d been so focused on the video she forgot why she had come to the common room. M leaned forward from where she was sitting on one of the couches and pressed a button on her watch. The video muted, but it didn’t matter. The killer had returned to staring and blinking.

“Why are you watching this?” T asked. She walked around the couch to look at M, who sat back again. She had a half empty bottle between her legs, though T couldn’t make out the label.

“S went to go pick up C, they decided to stay the night instead of flying back up and they sat in on this. I asked S to send it up.” T explained.

“Why?” T asked.

“I wanted to know why he did it. Why that officer….” M trailed off and took a swig from the bottle.

“I think we should turn this off,” T said.

“Yeah, not like it has a lot of answers,” M nodded and stopped the video.

“What are you drinking?” T nodded to the bottle.

M shrugged, “I dunno. I asked Art for something strong and he sent this up.” She held the bottle out to T so she could finally see the label.

“Bakta Auru?” T’s eyebrows shot up. “This is mine.” 

“Sorry,” M shrugged.

“No I don’t care that you’re drinking it, but it’s an Ongoro drink. We’re some of the only beings that actually have the tolerance to drink it. Full blooded Ongori can drink the whole bottle in a night. If you tried to have full glass you could die of alcohol poisoning. Hey Art!” T turned her head toward the ceiling where a ping responded. “Maybe next time don’t give the human alcohol that could kill her!”

“Affirmative,” Art responded.

“Ohhhh,” M leaned back on the couch, “That’s why after just a couple of swigs I feel… real good.” She chuckled. “Don’t worry I didn’t drink the whole half bottle.”

“Nah I know, I’ve been working on it before now.” T joined M on the couch. “Let me have a drink.” M handed the bottle to T who tilted it back for a long drink.

“Calm down now,” M joked.

“Hey if we’re drinking our sorrows away, I gotta catch up.” T chuckled and took another swig. M turned on her side to face T.

“So, you can jump off buildings,” M prompted.

T shrugged, “A couple stories.”

“Did you really need me to catch you on our first job?” M asked, her tone turned dark.

T sighed, “I didn’t jump that time, I fell. Plus it was higher up. Though I would have healed, it still would have taken me out of that job.”

“So, I did help you,”

“Yes, I did need the save. More importantly though it proved you had my back and that trust gain is more important to me than whether it was needed physically or not.” T turned on her side to mirror M and they fell silent for a moment. M was trying to find the words to best express with what she wanted to say.

“I guess I was just surprised today, when you jumped. I didn’t realize you could do that. It made me feel a little,” she paused, “foolish, I suppose, for that first job. To be honest, I felt a little cocky then. Can I have that again?” M reached for the bottle and wrapped her hand around the neck of the bottle covering T’s hand. T let go, waited for M to take a sip, and bring the bottle back down before she responded.

“I got angry. And when I get like that I react quickly, without thinking. Sometimes it’s not the best move,” T looked down at her hands.

“The tactical officer did something without thinking?” M teased. T’s mouth twitched in a smile, but she kept her eyes downcast.

“Sorry, that stuff is messing with my head,” M gestured to the bottle, realizing it might not have been the right moment for a joke.

“No, it’s ok,” T smirked and scooted closer to M. T grabbed the bottle, taking another drink. She rested it against her leg and played with the neck of the bottle before continuing. “So you wanna tell me why you’re sitting here in the dark, watching interrogations, drinking something that could kill ya.”

“I didn’t know it could kill me,” M scoffed, but sighed. “I don’t like losing beings. With Officer Stanis… I like to think I’m good at my job. She asked me why I joined Prism and it’s because I want to help beings, beings who can’t help themselves. And most of the time, that’s what we do, and I don’t like when we don’t. I don’t like when we lose.” M paused and took a deep breath. 

“Back home, I- I couldn’t do that. And it feels good, it feels so good having that ability to take down the bad beings,” M voice shook slightly and sighed. She took another drink and handed the bottle to T who took it. “I guess I just feel a little helpless. I know. I’m not, but it still feel like it. I used to feel like that all the time and I don’t want to feel like that again. I have agency and independence and freedom and with that I want to do some good in the universe.” M let out a long shaky breath and regained a false composure, “So that’s me.” T swallowed and gave a small nod.

“I didn’t join Prism to help beings,” T started. “I joined for the game. “It’s a job. Beings hire us to protect them, transport important items, or find dangerous beings, but it’s just a job.”

“No, don’t lie, you care,” M shook her head, “You don’t jump off a building if you don’t care.”

“Of course I care. I want to help beings too, but it’s not my driving force. I’m sad we lost Officer Stanis, but we caught the guy. No else is going to get hurt. We did. We helped someone, we just don’t know who they are.

“You talk about how back home you felt helpless? Try growing up on a planet where you are told to be the strongest and always win, but you are literally, physically, the weakest out of everyone. There has never been a human-Ongori hybrid before. No one there thought I could be as good as them. I did things, bad things, just to feel like I fit in. We’d fight each other, the different society groups are constantly at war, that’s what we do. I mean, I like fighting, it feels good, it’s part of who I am, but also I’ve killed just to prove I could. Now that I’m not there anymore, everyone I meet looks at my arms, and legs and they think Ongori are frightening or ruthless and sometimes when I look in the mirror and still see someone who is helpless. I think about what I’ve done, to not feel like that, and I see that being in the mirror too.

“I am not trying to compare our experiences I swear, just, believe me, I want to help beings. But a lot of the time it’s to show myself more than anyone, that I’m not just a killer, and I can win, but we aren’t saviors, we’re soldiers. Sometimes we have to hurt or lose beings, but as long as you’re trying to do good while doing it then that’s what matters. You can be sad over Officer Stanis and the beings you couldn’t save, but don’t let it change how you see yourself or who you want to be.”

The two women sat in silence, M taking in what T just said. Wanting to break the building tension T blurted out, “Or, you know, just get drunk for a night and start over tomorrow.” She took another sip from the bottle. M laughed and took the bottle, taking her own sip.

“You’re right though, thank you.” M rolled to lay on her back at looked up at Art’s domed window, “I’ve never gotten drunk this fast before.”

“You okay?” T asked, taking the bottle back from M. She found the cap of the bottle and screwed it back on before setting the bottle on the table in front of them.

“The stars are spinning,” M giggled.

“Yeah, definitely no more for you,” T chuckled, leaning back to look up with her. She wanted to lay closer, but didn’t want to make M uncomfortable. 

“No, I’m okay,” M turned her head to face T, “Do you feel anything?”

T turned to face M as well and couldn’t help but grin when she looked at her, “Oh no, I am, I just seem to be handling it better than you.” M laughed.

“I like that you want to help beings, even if it’s just to make yourself feel better,” M smiled.

“It’s called everybody wins,” T grinned.

M laughed, “You’re all about the win-win.”

“Yeah, everyone wins, seems like a good thing,” T smiled. M was staring at her now causing T’s breath to catch in her chest.

“Yeah, I like it,” M turned her whole body to face T.

“Thanks.”

“I like you.”

“Yeah?”

M grinned, “Yeah.”

“I like you too.”

“Yeah?” M says. T laughed and gave M’s shoulder a soft push. M caught T’s arm and pulled her into a kiss. T tensed with surprise, but quickly sank in, and kissed her back. M moved her hand up T’s arm to rest on her neck and T knew M could feel her pulse racing. T wrapped her arm around M’s waist to pull her closer. M moved to deepen the kiss when something suddenly clicked in T’s brain. She gasped as she pulled back.

“Wait,” T breathed.

“What?” M froze and gave her a confused look.

“This is- this is great,” T started, as M brushed back a lock of blue hair, “But we’re kinda drunk. You’re very drunk and I- I’d feel bad. I wouldn’t want you regretting anything tomorrow.”

M unfroze and smiled, “You’re so galant.”

T gave a small laugh, “Is that okay?”

“Of course,” M said, and pulled back a little and rested her head on the back of the couch.

“I’m going to go to bed,” T said. She pushed herself off the back of the couch and halfway into a standing position the floor of the common area seemed to tilt sideways. “Whoa,” T whispered as she fell back awkwardly onto the couch with her eyes closed. “Or here, sleeping here is good.”

M laughed as T repositioned herself into a more comfortable position and leaned her head onto the back of the couch. M’s hands rested on her legs and T reached out and gently touched her right one. M jumped a little at the unexpected touch as T curled her hand around M’s.

“Is this okay?” T whispered.

“Yeah,” M nodded as they both drifted off to sleep.

~

T felt her head pounding from the second she woke up. She groaned and tried to reach for her head when her hand caught on something. T remembered that she and M held hands as they slept just as she heard a similar groan to her right. Slowly T turned over and opened her eyes a fraction. M lay facing her, still holding her hand.

“You okay there?” T croaked.

“I’ve been better,” M mumbled.

“You’re not going to puke or anything, are you?”

“No, or maybe, but it would be nice if my head stopped trying to kill me,” M sighed and T laughed.

“I am sober though, more clear headed,” M stared at T as both woman lay their heads on the back of the couch.

“That’s good,” T smiled. M’s eyes shifted to look down at their knees.

“I do like you, ya know. That wasn’t just alcohol, but it’s kinda thanks to the alcohol that I actually said it,” M whispered, her eyes flicked back up to T’s face, as she flashed an awkward smile, but both the glance and the smile disappeared quickly. T smiled back at her.

“That’s... good,” T repeated. M’s nervous expression deepened. “I mean,” T realized that probably wasn’t the best response, “Sorry, my brain is not functioning correctly.”

“I get that,” M laughed shakily.

“I also like you, in a sober way,” T chuckled to try and ease her nerves.

“Good, that’s good, we both like each other in a sober way,” M let a breath she had been holding and tried to nod, but when pain shoot through her temples she quickly realized that was a bad idea. Both women fell silent and just laid on the couch together. Once again, they realized that they were still holding hands.

“I feel like this is the part where we kiss again, but my head feels like a brick,” M groaned and closed her eyes. T couldn’t help, but grin.

“Do you wanna, maybe, do this again later, but not hungover?” T asked. M opened her eyes and saw T had the bantering glint back in her eyes.

“That’s sounds like a good plan,” M agreed.

“Great, let’s go see if S can fix our heads,” T said pushing herself up and pulling M after her.

“Oh no, please don’t make me move,” M groaned, but allowed herself to be pulled over to the lift, “Why’d you let me drink that stuff?”

“Uh, that was Art technically. I was the one who told you it’s not for humans. Plus, literally stopped you,” T chuckled as she pulled M into the lift.

“It’s evil. I hate you,” M said playfully.

“Nah, you like me,” T smirked. M rolled her eyes as the lift doors opened onto the med lab and they left it to find S and painkillers.


	7. Prism Part 7- Worlds Collide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 7: Worlds Collide
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

“So, I’m not great at opening up,” M said. 

T snapped her head to the left to give her a confused look, “That just sound dirty.” The two women were lying on their backs underneath the engine on Art, arms pressed together with their fingers intertwined. It had been a week and a half since they had first kissed. At M’s request they hadn’t let the other two team members in on their relationship. Instead they had been quietly meeting up around the ship and talking, working together, which usually descended into flirting and kissing.

“You’re so funny,” M said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes, before changing to a more serious tone, “I just mean, like I said before, I’m not very good at opening up to beings.”

“I remember you telling me last month,” T gently rubbed her thumb over M’s hand, turning as much as she could underneath the engine to face M, who was fixedly staring up into the engine.

“For some reason it’s easier with you, which is good, but I still get this knot in my stomach and I hate it because I don’t want to feel like that. I don’t want to be scared to tell you how I feel and I’ve been pretending all week that I don’t feel that, because I didn’t want to think about it, but I can’t hold it in anymore, and I just… you should know,” M rattled quickly and took a deep shaky breath when she finished. T paused before chuckling.

“Don’t- don’t do that,” M sighed.

“I’m sorry, I like when you rattle things of like that, it’s kind of cute,” T grinned. M exhaled, obviously exasperated and pulled her hand out of T’s.

“I’m just- I’m gonna go,” M said and tried to push herself out from underneath the engine which without a rolling platform was slow and awkward.

“What? No. M, wait,” T said and she too awkwardly scooted free of the engine. “M, I’m sorry.” M had pulled herself up through the grated platform, but paused. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall of the engine room to wait while T pulled herself up to join her.

“I’m sorry if that wasn’t the reaction you were looking for, I’m glad you told me,” T said.

“No I know, don’t apologize, I just want you to know where I’m coming from, as much as I’m able to tell you right now,” M shrugged, staring at her feet.

“I’m not very good at sharing my feelings either so how about we just be uncomfortable together?” T smiled, drawing closer to M and resting her hand on M’s arm, “Just don’t walk away when you’re upset, okay? Just talk to me. You can’t really get very far on a spaceship anyway.” T grinned again and M couldn’t help, but smile as she nodded.

“Oh you’d be surprised how far I could get on this ship,” M grinned, finally looking up to meet T’s gaze.

“I’ve been here longer than you, you know,” T smirked back.

“You didn’t know there was a ladder next to lift before I showed you,” M responded laughing and T joined in. The laughter died, but a humorous, comfortable air remained between them. “I promise I won’t walk away again.”

“Good,” T smiled and leaned in and kissed her. M pulled her deeper into the kiss before T pulled back.

“Hey, when can we tell S and C?” T asked.

“I’m just nervous that we’ll get ahead of ourselves and tell them about something before we know it’s going to last,” M said.

“I get that, I do,” T nodded brushing as lock of hair behind M’s ear, “But with everything that happened with Elitha and between S and I when you were sick… I just feel like they need to know something that affects the team.”

“But it’s not affecting the team right now, we’re doing our jobs same as we always have,” M said wrapping her arms around T’s waist.

“I know, I just don’t think they’d see it that way,” T sighed. Before M could respond the door leading to the hangar opened and S walked in. T pulled back, but S just raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, I figured,” S sighed frowning, “Come on, we have a job.” She turned and walked out without giving them a chance to join her.

“Shit,” T whispered.

“I thought you said she wouldn’t be mad?” M asked.

T sighed before whispering, “Yeah, that’s what she said.” The two women followed S out the door.

~

When M and T arrived in the common room C and S were already at table. C had inserted a disk in it because a hologram of a planet floated above it.

“S,” T began cautiously as she walked up to the table.

“We have a job,” S said shortly.

“Yeah, you said that,” T said slowly as though she were trying to calm a cornered animal. She eased into her seat next to C as M sat in her own seat, her eyes ping ponging between T and S.

“Uh, what’s going-” C began before S interrupted.

“Infinity is sending us to Oxfrimon,” S nodded at the holographic planet. The other three women glanced at each other, but decided to follow S’s lead into the meeting. “C, give us some background please.”

“Uh, sure,” C said, and looked to her holo-screen to the list of info she had pulled up just before. “It’s a small moon. Not many inhabitants, they tried to terraform it, but it didn’t quite take. So you can breath, but there’s not much else. Mostly a lot of rocky craters.”

“Infinity bought the moon, but there is one hold out who won’t leave. He’s now trespassing and we need to go remove him.”

“We have to remove someone from their home?” M asked.

“Unfortunately,” S sighed, “It happens sometimes. A person has been renting for years and the landowner sells the building or the house or the moon in this case, but they refuse to leave.”

“That just seems wrong,” M said.

“Yeah, but at least now they can find a nicer place to live than that thing,” T said.

“I don’t think that’s the point, T,” C kindly pointed out, and T knew it was her way of telling T to stop while she was ahead.

“Just saying,” T shrugged.

“Not everyone hates where they’re from, T,” S snapped and T’s jaw dropped in shock.

Once she gained composure T said, “I don’t hate where I’m from, just most of the beings who live there.”

“Anyway,” S ignored her, “The being’s name is Quatum Verhill. He’s been holed up there for days, shooting anyone that comes close. C and T, you should to go research him and the terrain, find the best approach, gather any weapons you think we’ll need. M, you come with me and prep The Tube.” T and M glanced at each other, both wondering if S was separating them on purpose, but before they could say anything S stood up and stalked over to the lift, “Let’s go.”

M gave T a small smile as they stood to leave. As she walked behind T, she lightly brushed her fingers on T’s arm to try and convey that everything would be all right.

~

“Did S seem in a bad mood to you?” C asked. She and T were being lifted into the air by the antigravity in her computer room.

“Uh, well I sensed vibe,” T snarked.   
“I wonder why,” C said as she tapped on her holo-screen.

“No idea,” T crossed her arms sullenly and looked at the floor.

“Ah, that’s what I thought,” C said. T looked up to the screen and one corner was playing video footage of the engine room. She could see herself with M’s arms wrapped around her and S suddenly appearing.

“What the- this place has cameras?” T shouted.

“Do you know anything about this ship?” C looked confused.

“Oh come on!” T stared dumbstruck at the screen, “I knew there’s one in the cell, but I thought that was it!”

“Oh, no, they’re everywhere, except our rooms,” C was trying to hide the smile that gave away that she was enjoying this revelation a little too much.

“How long have they been there?” T asked.

“Um, forever, like before we were here. I can’t believe you didn’t know,” C said.

“I know what I need to know, okay?” T snapped. C sighed and raised her eyebrows at her. “Sorry,” T quietly. She calmed down and looked back at the screen. “S said she wouldn’t be mad, like, if we starting dating. When you guys were sick, we had a, sort of, heart to heart and she said she wouldn’t.”

“I think it’s just cause you didn’t tell us,” C appealed, “Do you see why that might make her mad?”

“It’s not like I don’t want you to know,” T whined, “M just wasn’t ready. I was trying to respect that.”

“But you still hid it from us,” C said.

“Can you understand the situation I was in?” T sighed.

“Yes, as frustrating as I find it, I can. You weren’t very sneaky though, both S and I knew a couple days ago.”

“You did? How?” T asked shocked.

“Don’t insult my intelligence, T. First of all, you stopped disliking M way too quickly when she joined the team. Second, you two flirt all the time. Third, after you two spend one night by yourselves on the ship, for the past week you both go “work” together somewhere around the ship, away from us.”

“We are working!” T defended.

“I can see that,” C gestured to the screen.

“Wow!” T looked taken aback from C’s snarky comment. 

C grinned and blushed, “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“No, yeah, I would have done it too.” T smiled.

C laughed and the two women descended into a warm silence, broken by C, “I just think as your friends, we’d like to know because we care about you and are happy for you. As your team, we should at least be informed so we have all the information. I learned my lesson with Elitha. I should have told you what happened.”

“That’s what I said, when I said we should tell you. I wanted to tell you. I swear! This was something that has a longer reason that is not mine to share. Please believe me, I wanted to tell you.”

C sighed, “I understand, I’m not trying to fight with you, T. I’m just trying to explain how S and I feel.

“All right, I’m sorry,” T snapped.

“That’s convincing. Maybe change when you say that to S.”

“Yeah,” T whispered, “Now I have to tell M that you know. Oh no, is S telling her right now too? This lecture would be so much more… unpleasant coming from her.” 

“No, I’m sure S is just working in huffy silence, only speaking when she needs to.

“Like I said, unpleasant. Can we just research this guy and get down there as fast as we can.”

~

An hour later C and T exited the lift into the hangar. Art informed them they were close to Oxfrimon so C transferred everything they learned about Verhill and T went down to the armory and stocked a case full of guns. They both a handle of the case and they carried it over to M and S who were finishing working on The Tube. When M saw them she jumped out of the shuttle and walked over to T as C continued on to S.

“I am glad you two are here, she hasn’t said anything to me unless it’s about The Tube the entire time,” M said quietly.

“They’ve known the whole time,” T said back quietly.

“Are you serious?,” M sighed. They both joined S and C.

“So what did you find out?” S asked.

“Verhill is ex-military for Enmara,” C said, pulling up an image of a man in military uniform. “He was part of an elite unit. A group of only 5 men, went on covert missions. One of the soldiers died and the team was disbanded. Verhill went back home to Oxfrimon.”

“So, he’s probably not going down without a fight,” T told them.

“Exactly,” C nodded, “Also I tracked the names of his team, and they seem to have disappeared. They haven’t bought property. Opened any sort of accounts or anything.

“Are they still alive though?” M asked.

“That’s the thing, it literally doesn't say anything about them after they left the military. So we assume, but who knows,” C said.

“So we’re probably dealing with more than just Verhill,” S concluded.

“Most likely,” T said, “Seems like they made their retirement a group effort with only Verhill’s name on the paperwork. That or they are just really good at staying under the radar, but if I had military buddies and was fighting a corporation for land I would call them in for help.”

“Hm, would you?” S asked. T gave her a pointed look and S stared back frowning.

“Anyway, I think our best plan is to fly in out of sight and then fly through this canyon and land beyond this ridge, see?” C had pulled a holographic map out of her holo-screen and the 3D image showed the moon and then zoomed into to a canyon running through it. She pointed out a landing site behind a hill close to Verhill’s house where they could keep out of sight.

“T, what’s the plan?” M asked.

“Once we land C, S, and I will sneak up on the place. See how many beings we’re dealing with and where we can enter easily. You stay with The Tube ready to swoop over and pick him up.”

“Sounds good, let’s move,” S didn’t wait for them to agree. She turned sharply and stepped into The Tube. T’s shoulders squared off as she frowned and tightened her hands into a fist.

“Don’t. Just, no,” C said picking up a side of the gun case.

“Let’s just get this done and then we’ll deal, okay?” M whispered.

“Yeah,” T said begrudgingly and helped C load the case into the shuttle.

The short ride down to the moon was spent in tense silence. T only broke it once after they emerged through the atmosphere and could see the surface. The ground was more crater and canyon than flat. Occasionally there was a big enough patch on the brown surface that you could see a small house with a bit of green surrounding it.

“Wow, this place looks miserable. Why would anyone want to fight to stay here?” No one responded more than small shrugs and a sigh from S. M landed the shuttle where C instructed an S, M, and T gathered around the gun case. They each pulled out a gun and a few plasma refill cartridges. Each cartridge lasted long enough that they rarely needed so many refills, but better safe than sorry. They attached the items to their utility belt and exited the shuttle.

“Keep the shuttle ready, we’ll comm you when we have a lay of the land,” T smiled at M still standing in the ship as she expertly loaded a gun and clicked the safety off.

“Have fun,” M nodded to them and closed the door. The three women hugged the edge of the ridge, T leading the way with guns at their side, ready for any attack. When they reached the curve where they would be visible to the little homestead that belonged to Quatum Verhill, T stopped and pressed her back to the rock face. The other two women copied her. T peered around the corner.

“All looks quiet,” she told C and S, “There are a few rock faces that can cover us on our approach to the house. Follow my lead.” The other two nodded in agreement and crouched low behind T who had done the same. They ran around the corner and straight to a large boulder stationed at the base of the ridge. T stopped for a second before pushing on to a rock outcropping a few yards ahead. As they ran a plasma blast hit the rock ahead of them and they dived for cover behind it.

“Watch dog, C,” T said. C let the little bot loose over the rock and opened up an image on her holo-screen. They watched as the little device zoomed forward as they heard the plasma blasts hitting the rock in front of them. The screen showed the little house before them and a gun sticking out of each the front windows.

“That’s two, where’s the other two?” S asked.

“No idea,” T said, pointing her gun over the rock and aiming for one of the windows. C did the same for the opposite window and they began shooting back. The guns disappeared from the windows and T and C ducked back down.

“S, we’ll cover you, you try and get closer to the house, see if you can talk to them,” T instructed as the blasts began again over their heads. S nodded and got ready to run to a rock outcropping ahead. T and C aimed above the rock again and began firing. The return fire stopped again, S ran out from behind the rock toward the house. She ducked behind them and poked her head over. She was only a few yards from where the green grass surrounding the house started. She was trying to spot someone when her focus was broken by a plasma blast hitting the rock an inch from her hand. She yelled in shock and looked to her right where the blast came from. She could see a short man with his face covered with a cloth standing on the ridge cocking a gun as the firing began again from the house.

“T, look up and right!” S called pressing her comm. She pulled out her gun and aimed for the man aiming for her, but before she could shoot, a plasma blast hit perfectly below his feet. The rock he was standing on crumbled and he yelled as he fell to the ground.

“Got him,” T called back and began shooting at the house again.

“Get off my property and we’ll stop shooting,” a man’s voice came from the house.

“We just took out one of your men, you aren’t in a position to be bargaining here,” S called back, “Besides this is not your property.”

“Like shit it’s not,” the man yelled back and continued shooting.

“Listen,” S called, “Infinity has informed us that you are refusing to leave the moon they now own and we have been tasked with removing you!”

“Infinity are liars and I’m not going anywhere,” the man called back. He shot at S’s head and she ducked behind the rock again.

“You have a plan for drawing them out, T?” S asked over the comms.

“I’m guessing you don’t want me to blow up the house?” T asked.

“I think taking them alive should be the goal,” S responded.

“Boring,” T sighed, but as C shot the house, T ran forward to join S.

“All right, you two keep them busy. I’m going to run around-” T began, but was interrupted by a new voice behind them.

“Stop!” It yelled over the blasts. T and S glanced back, but C kept her eyes and gun trained guarding against any blasts from the house. T and S could see a tall, skinny man with green skin and slit eyes like a snake walking toward them. He was gripping M’s neck and forcing her to walk in front of him as her hands were raised in surrender and his gun resting on her temple.

“Stop or I shoot your friend,” the man called.

“Stop, stop!” T called to C waving her hand as a signal to stand down. C ducked behind the rock as the man walked closer. They heard the sound of a door opened and S looked back to see the two other men, one tall and lean they recognized from his profile as Verhill, the other almost as tall with bulging muscles, walked out of the house, guns in hand.

“What happened, M?” T called.

“He disabled The Tube! I got an alert and went out to check and he jumped me, sorry!” M called.

“Shut up!” the green man snapped at her, “Drop your gun!” He stopped a few yards away from C who was completely out in the open to him, nothing stopping him from shooting her. C put down her gun and put her hands up like M. 

“Listen!” Verhill called out, “We aren’t looking for a fight. You agree to leave Oxfrimon and us in peace and we won’t fight ya.”

“We can’t do that Verhill,” S called, “You don’t belong here just as much as we do. We’ve been tasked with making sure you leave and that’s what we’re going to do!” The man holding M cocked his gun.

“Maybe shut up, S,” T whispered watching M nervously.

“You’re the one that said I should talk to him,” S hissed.

“Yeah, but maybe acting like we’re willing to work with them is the better plan here,” T hissed back.

“You want to lie,” S snapped quietly.

“I’d like my girlfriend not to get shot!” T growled. S seemed taken aback at this statement and before she could respond they heard the man’s voice again.

“Hey! Quit whispering back there! What do you mean I don’t belong here? This land has been in my family for generations.”

“Just because you’ve been renting for generation-” S started, but T punched her in the arm at the same time the man they now assumed to be Verhill yelled back.

“We haven’t been renting it. I told you Infinity are liars. This is my land, I own it and I have the deeds to prove it.”

“Wait, what?” T poked her head above the rock, but ducked down quickly as the man behind Verhill aimed and shot above her head.

“Put that down, you idiot,” they heard Verhill say, then he raised his voice again, “You seem to have the same made-up story that others have had when they came here trying to get me to leave. I’ll offer you this, we all put our weapons down and you listen to what I have to say or you leave empty handed. The only other option is we all kill each other.” T and S exchanged looks, having a quick silent conversation. S finally sighed.

“Do it your way,” she told T.

“Thanks,” T whispered then called to Verhill, “We’ll talk, but we won’t put our weapons down until your friend releases mine.” She glanced over the rock and saw Verhill look over their heads to his friend and nod. They followed his gaze and saw the green man release M, who ran to duck behind the rock with C, and holster his gun.

“Remove the plasma cartridges, we aren’t stupid,” S called. The man grumbled and removed his gun again and removed the plasma and stick them in his belt before holstering the gun again.

“Your turn,” Verhill called. T and S held their guns over their heads so the men could see and hit the button that released the cartridges. They peered over the rock and watched Verhill and the other man do the same. “Last one,” Verhill nodded to C’s gun. The green man walked over to it and removed the cartridge and kicked both, one at a time over to C.

“Manke, go check on Lennet,” Verhill said. The man behind him walked in the direction of his friend who fell off the ridge.

“I can go with him. I’m a doctor,” S stood from behind the rock.

“So is he,” Verhill said.

“Yes, but also I don’t really want one of you walking over to an area we can’t see where someone still has a loaded gun so how about she goes with?” T stood up next to S staring Verhill down. Manke, was looking between Verhill and S waiting for instructions.

“Fine,” Verhill agreed, “We need to trust each other.” S walked over to Manke and they disappeared around a rock cropping. The other man, M, and C walked up to be level with T. “Let’s go inside,” Verhill gestured.

“I don’t think so,” T stopped everyone in their tracks, “We know you’re ex-military and can almost guarantee that these aren’t the only guns you own. Before anyone goes in there, we need to do a search.”

“Do you really think I’m going to let you in my house by yourself?” Verhill growled.

“What happened to trusting each other?” T snapped.

“You’re doing a good job of it,” Verhill snapped back.

“Stop,” C said, standing in between the two, “I can send the watch dog in there. It can look around and scan for any weapons. Neither of us goes in there first and everyone can know where everything is hidden. Sound like a good compromise?” T and Verhill exchanged a look before both giving a wooden nod.

“Good,” C pulled a watch dog out of her belt and activated it. Her holo-screen popped out of her watch and she let the watch dog go. It flew into an open window and everyone outside stood very still as C watched her screen. The house wasn’t very big, one floor with two little rooms. One that served as both living room and kitchen with door to a bedroom in the back. She activated the scanner on the watch dog. It reported back that there were several hidden compartments in the floors, and ceiling. The watch dog x-rayed the areas showing each with a stockpile of weapons. 

“You folks don’t fool around, huh?” C sighed. She pulled as small round ball out of her utility belt and hit a button on the top. It broke apart into hundreds of little bots that zoomed into the house.

“What did you just do?” Verhill barked.

“You house and weapons are fine. I just put a selperm barriers over each of the compartments so we can talk peacefully without worrying that you all will pull weapons on us at any second,” C said smugly. Verhill exchanged unhappy glances with the green man, but they didn’t object. Behind them they heard a scuffling and they all turned to see S and Manke with Lennet draped between them. His leg was bloody and mangled.

“I thought we were going inside,” S said, “We need some water.”

~

Verhill instructed everyone to lay their belts and holsters by the door before they could come in the house. For half an hour, the group sat in tense silence as S and Manke worked on Lennet’s leg. They managed to set the and S used her healing foam to stop the bleeding and mostly heal the torn flesh. 

“All right, he should be fine,” S finally said standing up. Lennet just rolled his eyes as he bit down on a cloth Verhill had given him soaked in alcohol.

“Wash basin is out back,” Manke nodded to the back door and he and S left to wash the blood off their hands.

“Why do you live like this?” C asked looking around the small wooden cabin. There wasn’t much machinery. The sink in the kitchen looked like it ran off a pump, and the stove was wood burning. Verhill looked over to her studying her for a moment before answering.

“Technology can cause problems,” Verhill said.

“Let me guess that’s how your 5th team member died?” T raised her eyebrows.

“No, he went down in friendly fire,” Verhill snapped, “But technology was used to try and frame this team for his death.”

“I’ve found technology makes life easier,” C interrupted.

“Well technology has caused Infinity to convince beings that I am trespassing on my own land. So, no, I’m not a fan, I prefer hard evidence.”

“You sound like a conspiracy nut,” M said.

“Listen,” Verhill fixed his eyes on the three women. You could tell he was trying to look tough and menacing, but a lingering sadness behind his eyes killed the effect. “I’ve been lucky enough to get myself in a hole one too many times. I’ve also been lucky enough to escape pretty much intact. I got tired of falling in so I came back home to get away from all of it. That’s why I don’t want technology around. Less chance of me not being able to pull myself out of trouble again. I just want to stay home and live my life, but that’s not looking like an option.” The group grew quiet as S and Manke came back inside, newly clean. S looked around the room at the silent beings and sensed the tension.

“What’d we miss?”

“Nothing, you need to be here for,” Verhill sighed.

“Just some good ol’ fashioned dick measuring,” the green man chuckled.

“Promar! Shut up!” Verhill spat.

“Can we get down to business then?” S asked, “You said you had deeds saying you owned this property.”

“Yeah, over here,” Verhill said. He walked over and opened a closet. From the top shelf he pulled down a age worn file folder and dropped it on a table in the middle of the room.

“Like I said, my family has owned this bit of land for hundreds of years, since the terraforming failed. They were selling plots cheap and it was really all my ancestors could afford.”

The women of Prism gathered around the table while the men looked on. T was the only one who hung back a little, with her guard up. C and S carefully pulled the old documents out of folder and looked through them.

“They certainly look authentic,” C said quietly to S.

“They are,” Verhill said when they overheard, “So Infinity saying they just bought the whole thing is shit.”

“I looked through this sale though; when I was researching this job. I saw all the notarized documents showing that Infinity bought this moon,” C said.

“Digitally?” Verhill asked.

“Everything is digital,” C pointed out, “Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t use it. Not to mention it’s been that way on most planets for centuries. You really expect me to go against everything I have not only spent my life studying, but something everyone has used for hundreds of years?”

“I’m not knocking everyone who use it. Beings are allowed to make their own choices and yes, for many technology is helpful, but don’t pretend it can’t be used to do bad things,” Verhill pointed out, “You’re what? A hacker... and a bounty hunter? You should know that. You don’t think a company as powerful as Infinity don’t have the resources to falsify documents?”

“I think the problem is we have worked with Infinity for years and trust them. We don’t know you,” S explained, “We have no reason to believe Infinity lied to us and every reason to think you are just another target trying to get out of being arrested.”

“Why’d you even come in here then?” Manke spat.

“Because you took one of us hostage,” T snapped back. 

“Well you shot one of us,” Promar hissed.

“I shot below him, he’s fine,” T retorted. The room filled with a tense silence only broken by Lennet snoring on the couch, finally giving into his injury.

“You can believe me or not, but examine those,” Verhill nodded to the documents, “And examine those sale documents you mentioned. You’ll see which ones are real.”

“I’ll need to take them to our ship,” C started.

“They don’t leave here,” Verhill said flatly.

“Okay. Then I need some items from our ship,” C said.

“Manke can go with you, to make sure you don’t call for backup,” Verhill said.

“No one goes on Art besides us,” S said.

“Then we have a bit of a problem don’t we?” Verhill said.

“I have an idea,” M said and everyone shifted focus to her.

“I’ve been building something. It’s a automated shuttle. I haven’t said anything because I wanted to make sure it worked first.”

“You’re just full of surprises today,” S frowned. M opened her mouth as though to respond, but thought better of it.

“I can remotely contact Art,” M continued, “Some bots should be able to get the items you need and the shuttle can bring them down. Sound good to everyone?” Nods and soft sounds of agreement filled the room. “Okay, I just need to go outside. This hasn’t been tested yet and I want to make sure there’s a clear signal.”

“You can’t contact anything or anyone more than a few hours away from the moon,” Verhill said, “Just so you know. I set up a system and your device will fry.”

“I didn’t plan to,” M said.

“Manke go with her,” Verhill said. The huge man silently followed M out the door. The room fell quiet for a minute. Suddenly T stood.

“I’ll be right back.” She walked out the door and over to M who had her holo-screen open. Manke stood a few yards away with a lit cigarette.

“You’ve been working on something with Art?” T asked. M looked up at her slightly surprised.

“Yeah, I thought it would come in handy,” M said.

“Yeah, but I mean, I’ve been with you a lot of the time lately, seems weird to not tell me,” T lowered her voice a little so Manke couldn’t overhear and shuffled her feet awkwardly.

“Well, like I said, I just wanted to make sure I worked out all the bugs before I showed you all,” M said looking confused, “I didn’t want present a shoddy project. What’s the problem?”

“I get where you’re coming from, but now with S mad at us for not telling her about us because you weren’t ready…” T paused, “I guess, I just… am frustrated at S for being mad at us, I’m tired of secrets.”

“It’s not a secret, it wasn’t ready yet,” M defended, “It’s not my fault S is mad, don’t take it out on me.”

“Listen,” T said, “You told me how you were feeling, now I’m doing the same. You can’t keep something from everyone just because it’s not perfect. Sometimes that’s what causes it to fall apart.” T turned her back on M and stalked back into the little house leaving M a little dumbfounded. She remembered she wasn’t alone and glanced over at Manke who quickly tried to pretend he hadn’t been eavesdropping on their conversation. M turned back to her holo-screen trying to ignore the burning feeling in her chest.

~

It only took about 20 minutes for M’s carrier shuttle to reach the surface. Inside were all the items C needed to examine the documents. She scanned the papers with S’s help and quietly worked on her holo-screen as the other five beings sat in various places around room in tense silence. Finally C sighed and everyone turned to her.

“They’re fake,” she whispered. The room exploded around her. T jumped up and reached for her gun before remembering it wasn’t there.

“No, you’re lying!” Verhill shouted stomping up to her, but S stepped in the middle. Everyone else besides Lennet were standing to, all in different states of preparing to fight. C, looking surprised at everyone’s reaction, jumped to her feet.

“No, oh no, I’m so sorry,” C explained, “Infinity’s documents, the sale documents are fake. I’m so sorry. These are real.” Her face flushed in embarrassment.

“Are you kidding me, C?” T whined, “Kind of an important distinction!” Everyone else around the room was standing down too.

“I’m sorry,” C said in a pleading voice, “I was just so shocked. I mean it’s Infinity. We’ve been working with them for years. Why would Infinity make fake documents?”

“Why lie to us?” S asked. The room fell quiet. T noticed Verhill exchange glances with Manke and Promer.

“What?” She snapped.

“What?” Verhill responded.

“Don’t pretend. I saw the looks what do you know?” T insisted.

“T,” S said in a warning tone and stepped closer to her.

“I’m fine,” T said calmly, but her eyes had grown dark, “They know something they’re not telling us. They know why Infinity wants this moon.” M and C moved slightly closer to S & T and all four turned on the men across the room, waiting.

“Tell ‘em,” said a slurred voice from the couch. In all the confusion no one had noticed Lennet had woken up and was staring at Verhill.

“Lennet,” Verhill said, quietly, apprehensively.

“My leg has taken me out of this,” Lennet slurred, “You’re down a fighter. They might be able to help.” Verhill sighed and his eyes dropped to the floor. He stuck his thumbs in the top of his pants as he mulled over his situation.

“Fine,” he finally sighed, “But I can’t just explain it, I’ve gotta show ya.” Prism stared at him silently while expecting him to continue. When he didn’t, T got annoyed.

“Well are you going to show us?” She scoffed.

“It’s not here,” he snapped back.

“Where is it?” C asked.

“Bottom of the canyon,” Verhill nodded in the direction of the back of the house, “takes about a day to get there.”

“Well let me fix our shuttle and we’ll fly down,” M shrugged.

“Nah, nothing bigger than a hover-bike will fit down there and you wouldn’t believe me if I just told ya. I'll take ya, but you have to promise to help,” Verhill fixed them with a hard gaze.

“No way, we’re not agreeing to help with anything until you tell more about what’s going on,” T challenged him. Verhill stared at her, studying, before shifting his gaze to each of the women in turn.

“Agreed,” he nodded, “we’ll leave tomorrow. You all can have the bed if you want. I’ll sleep out here with my team.”

“We have our own place to sleep,” S said, “Our shuttle has a portable shelter.”

“No, I’m not letting you out of sight, giving you the chance to leave or call for help. You can get some supplies from your shuttle if needed, but we all stay here.” The room fell quiet as the women of Prism exchanged glances with each other, silently making their decision.

“All right, we’ll go with you tomorrow and we’ll stay here,” S nodded.

“But we’ll take our weapons with us into the canyon,” T interjected.

“Agreed,” Verhill held out his hand to S who was closest to him and she shook it. The other members of Prism followed suit.

“Promar can take you to your shuttle to get whatever you need,” Verhill nodded to Promar who started to object, but grudgingly accepted the assignment when Verhill glared at him.

“I’ll stay here,” C said, “Coverage on both sides.” T nodded and the group of four left the cabin walking toward the shuttle. The three women together while Promar lagged slightly behind and off to the side. T kept shooting him glances and M saw her shoulders were tense ready for an attack.

“I don’t like this,” M said, “They could just be taking us into the canyon to make it easier to get rid of us.”

“I agree,” T said.

“I understand,” S sighed, “But C confirmed that the Infinity documents are fake. That is not something to take lightly. They lied to us and if Verhill thinks he knows why, then we need all the information.”

“I don’t understand why he couldn’t just tell us. He doesn’t know we wouldn’t believe him,” M said.

“Well, whatever it is, even if I did believe it, I’d want proof so we’d have to go down there anyway,” S shrugged, “Might as well just do it. Besides if they are taking us down there to kill us then we’ll deal with it then. They may be an elite team, but so are we and we’ll take them out if need be.”

“You know I can hear you,” Promar snapped.

“Yes, you have ears and it’s not like we’re saying anything that you wouldn’t be thinking in our place,” T shot back. Promar scowled and fell silent.

~

S, T, and M collected the four small book sized packs from Art Two as Promar looked on confused. M tried to investigate what the being had done to incapacitate the shuttle, but he stopped her. They all trudged back to the cabin. They found Verhill and Manke had laid two ratty cots in the small living room and a pile of blankets that Manke was now lying on. The bedroom held a squashed and lumpy looking double bed and two more cots on the floor.

“I only bought four, one for each member of my team,” Verhill explained, “Never got rid of the fourth one after- anyway, never needed to get more. I figured guests first though.”

“You can take one if you want,” T said, tossing her pack on the bed, “Probably won’t be getting a lot of sleep anyway.”

“Neither will we,” Verhill said solemnly and left the room.

“Seriously though, take one,” C said, picking up a cot and handing it to Verhill, “Our packs have our own beds.”

“That little thing is a bed?” Verhill raised his eyebrows and eyed the little square pack.

“And more,” S said, “You’ve never heard of these? It’s just a dimensional compression-”

“It’s tech,” Verhill cut her off frowning at the pack.

“There’s no weapons. I swear. Just camping supplies,” C assured him. He shifted his gaze to her and after a moment decided to believe her.

“Have a good night.” He grabbed the cot C handed him and left, closing the door behind him. S immediately pulled a bed roll out of her pack and unfurled it on the far side of the bed. C pulled her own roll out and allowed T and M to share the bed. 

M turned to look at T warily, wondering if after airing her frustrations earlier, T even wanted to share the bed with her. T stared back, silently debating the same thing. She finally sighed, giving in to her own wants over her annoyance and laid on the bed.

“Let’s just some sleep,” she said M, but pointedly phrasing it to sound as though it was meant for everyone. M laid on the other side of the bed and reached a hand out taking T’s hand in hers. T didn’t pull away.

“I’ll take first watch,” S announced.

Tension coupled with guard shifts, none of them got more sleep than a little doze. When the sky outside turned purple in preparation for the sunrise there was knock on the door. C, who had taken the early morning watch, got up and answered it. Verhill stood there looking the same as he had the night before, but with dark circles under his eyes and a pack, much larger than each of Prism’s strapped to his back.

“Let’s go,” he said, “You can collect your weapons if you want, but shouldn’t need them down in the canyon.” He turned and walked out the front door of the cabin. The women packed up their bed rolls and each slung their pack on before following Verhill out the front door. Everyone who brought guns collected them and found Verhill standing with Manke and Promar, each with their own packs, and weapons around the side of the house looking over a large crater.

“The canyon is that way,” Verhill pointed to his left, “We’ll walk along the edge of the crater and then make our way down into the canyon.”

“Wait, walk?” T blurted out, “I thought you said you had hover-bikes.” 

Verhill paused looking confused, “No I said nothing bigger than a hover-bike will fit down the canyon. It’s a day’s hike to wear we’re going.”

S snorted as T made a small sound of disappointment. T looked over to her teammates to see them all trying to hide smiles.

“What?” Verhill still looked confused.

“T’s not really into hiking,” C explained still smiling.

“Shut up,” T rolled her eyes and stalked toward the edge of the crater. Verhill turned so he could lead the way and the group set off.

They walked for over an hour, when Verhill finally led them from the moon’s surface to a path that hugged the wall of a skinny canyon and gently slanted downward. C looked up to see the sun was high above them now, but luckily the canyon’s walls were close enough together and they had descended far enough that they were mostly in the shade.

The path may have slanted downward at the beginning, but now it rolled up and down with each descent slightly steeper. C could see Verhill in front of her carefully leading the way with Manke & Promar behind him. She turned around to see M and S close behind her and T lagging behind looking bored.

“Is there a place to stop?” C called up to Verhill, “We’ve been going for hours. I think we need a break.”

“Just ahead, the path widens a bit,” Verhill nodded.

They climbed over another incline and this descent was so steep they all practically slid down the other side, but Verhill was right. They found themselves on a rounded overhang where they could look down the canyon. They still had a ways to go on the path, but at least they had made it about halfway down.

“Get a drink, eat quickly, and let’s continue in ten minutes,” Verhill instructed as he and his men sat in a small group. Manke fished something that looked like jerky out of his pack. C looked behind her and saw M and S had sat with their backs against the wall, slightly too far apart to be friendly. T slid down the last bit of the hill and landed in a sitting position, looking as though that was the first bit of fun she had all day. C chuckled and walked over.

“How ya doing?” C asked as she sat down next to T, whose head lolled over to look at her, looking annoyed.

“I hate this,” T growled as she dug in her pack for a water bottle, “It’s not exciting or interesting. It’s just boring and never ending.”

“Well, think of it like this,” C suggested, pulling out a food pack from her bag, “When you reach the bottom, you win.”

“If ‘winning’ means dealing with this first,” T gestured back to the part of the path they had already completed, “Then I don’t think any of us are winners here.” C laughed taking a bite of food, using the time chewing and swallowing to think her next words over carefully.

“Are you mad at M?” C suddenly asked quietly. T spat out a laugh and sighed, still rummaging through the pack.

“No, not really, but with you too finding out about us and S being mad, when she mentioned there was something else she kept secret, I just snapped,” T paused, thinking, “It was too much, pressure, too much stress. She’s stressed about telling you, and I’m stressed about keeping the secret, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

“I’m sorry,” C smiled sadly.

“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” T shook her head. She finally found a bottle and tilted her head back, turning the bottle upside down, drinking almost the entire thing before pulling it away.

“Okay,” C nodded and held out a food pack. T smiled and tilted her head.

“I have some of my own in my pack,” T said.

“Yeah, but with how long it took you to find the water, you’re not going to have time to eat. Just give me one of yours later,” T laughed as she took the food pack from C.

~

M watched from where she sat as T laughed at whatever C just said.

“You know she called you her girlfriend,” M whipped her head around to see S watching her with a slight frown on her face.

“She did?” M asked, smiling a little, but warily. S nodded and turned back to her food. M took a deep breath before trying to continuing the conversation.

“Why are you mad about this?” M asked, “If you’re mad we didn’t tell you then blame me, I asked her to keep it a secret.”

“She didn’t really fight you on that though, did she?” S sighed.

“Yeah she did, actually, I just… I just couldn’t tell anyone yet...” M told her.

“All right, let’s go,” Verhill announced. S rose quickly throwing her pack on her back and followed Verhill and his team. M looked back to T and C who were closing their own packs and standing to follow.

They continued walking for a few hours. The path finally leveled into a soft decline and T was able to keep up with the group. More than once she had looked over the side to see if she could jump down, but a river filled the canyon’s bottom and she decided walking was preferable to swimming. The path reached the bottom of the canyon and wound around the edge of the river just a few feet above it. As it grew even more narrow, C felt like she was constantly holding her breath and tensing her muscles just make sure she could fit on the path.

“We’re here,” Verhill said. The group looked up from watching every careful step on the path to see a huge open mouth of a cave. A small stream bed ran through it to make a tiny waterfall as it ran out to join the river. True to Verhill’s word, the hike at taken almost the full day. There wasn’t much light at the bottom of the cave, but looking up at the edges, they could see the warm, orange light that signaled sunset.

Verhill and his men pulled old fashioned flashlights out of their packs and stepped into the cave. The women of Prism turned on their own lights, that hovered just above their heads. The cave had never truly received any sunlight and it smelled of pure, undiluted wet. They could feel the water in the thickness in the air, making it heavy, like the dark of the cave wasn’t just swallowing them, but completely erasing them. The cool air inside felt good after walking all day, but none of the team let the relief fully wash over them.

A cave at the bottom of a canyon would be an easy place for Verhill and his men to kill and dispose of them, but why waste a whole day walking down here to just get rid of them? There was something in the cave, they could feel it. Nerves mixed with anticipation built as they walked further into the cave. The little light emitting from the flashlights seemed to disappear in the gloom ahead and all they could hear was their breathing, footsteps, and running water from the stream.

After a few minutes, they realized the cave curved slightly because they could no longer see the entrance behind them. Up ahead, the darkness seemed like it was slightly brighter; they could see a bit further ahead. None of them could tell if their eyes were just adjusting to the dark or if the light was coming from something else.

“What is that?” C’s voice came out of the darkness making S jump.

“You see it too?” T’s voice asked.

“What are talking about?” M’s voice replied, “I can’t see anything.”

“Me either,” S said.

“There’s light ahead of us,” C said.

“You’ll see,” Verhill’s voice was just ahead of them, “We’re almost there.” The group fell silent again and continued walking. M and S started seeing the faint glimmer of blue tinged light ahead of them. It illuminated a sharp corner that the stream was curved around. The sound of water was louder now and they could hear it lapping as there there were a large body of water around the corner.

“Here we go,” Verhill said. They rounded the corner into a huge cavern that housed an underground lake that loomed before them. The light emanated from the cave wall on the other side and the entire team stopped in their tracks, gaping over the water.

“No,” S gasped and stepped forward as close as the lake would let her.

“How is this possible?” C whispered. M grabbed T hand and squeezed it. Across the lake, illuminating the entire room with swirling blue-white light, was a giant portal.

“They’re illegal,” M said, “The Authority destroyed all of them.”

“Well, you could see why this one may have been missed,” Verhill said. He had stood back with Manke and Promar and let Prism take in the awesome sight.

“And you think this is why Infinity is trying to force you off your land?” M asked turning back to the men.

“Only thing that make sense,” Verhill shrugged, “This moon isn’t good for much else.”

“H-how did you even f-find this?” S stuttered.

“Playing around as a kid,” Verhill brushed off the question, “Explored pretty much this whole canyon.”

“You ever taken it?” T asked, “See where it goes?”

“Nah, too hard to get to,” Verhill shook his head, “And I don’t really like portal travel anyway.”

“Yeah, me neither,” T mumbled and finally pulled away from M, stepping back a few feet; as though she were nervous the portal could reach out and grab her.

“And nothing’s ever come through?” C asked.

“Not that I know of,” Verhill said.

“Why would Infinity want a portal?” S asked sharply, “It’s not like they could really use it. I mean, unless it leads somewhere they couldn’t get to otherwise.”

“Infinity stretches across the galaxy. It’s not like a lot of stuff is off limits to them,” M pointed out.

“Okay, then what?” S asked, looking confused.

“Does it matter?” T said, “Let’s destroy it and then no one has to worry about it.”

“You can do that?” Verhill asked. The M and T all looked at S and C.

“I- I don’t know,” S shrugged looking at C, “We would need a portal bomb.”

“Can we make one?” C asked.

“A bomb?” Verhill seemed to tense at that.

“It’s not exactly a bomb,” S explained, “It’s basically a device that emits energy to destabilize the portal. You send the device in and it detonates from the middle of the portal. It disconnects and both sides collapse.”

“Collapse?” In a cave?” Manke scoffed.

“Risk of a cave in is very low, very minimal structural damage has been reported from all the other portal destructions.”

“How do we get one?” Verhill asked, “You said you could make it?”

“I can maybe hack the instructions?” C looked at S, unsure about this plan, “We can see if we can make one. I can’t hack it from down here though. I need to go to my ship.” Verhill glanced over to Manke and Promar and C rolled her eyes. “Going to the ship is the only way we can get the instructions. We are not going to betray you at this point. You have a portal this is bigger than a petty land dispute!

Verhill’s mouth twitched in apprehension, but nodded, “If you think you can destroy it and get Infinity off my back then you do whatever you need to do.”

“Good to hear,” C said.

Verhill released his tense shoulders, “Well then, not much more to do down here, but we’re not climbing that path in the dark. We’ll sleep here and head back to your ship in the morning.”

~

The two groups separated for sleep in the same way they had the night before. The men chose a corner of the cave on one side of the exit tunnel and the woman took a spot on the other side of the opening. They all pulled out bed rolls, but while Prisms had a newer and uniform look to them, the men’s ranged in size, cleanliness, and cushioning. Verhill started a small fire in between the groups, but with how damp the cave was, it was hard to keep it going. The men sat around it and C, T, and M joined them while S stayed on her bedroll working on her holoscreen. 

No one said much, but they all quietly ate and from drank water bottles. T once again couldn’t find one, so M handed her one of her own. T shook her head and kept searching. Promar chuckled and they all looked to him.

“Lover’s quarrel?” He sneered.

“Excuse me?” T asked warningly.

“I saw the way you were looking at her when I had a gun to her head. My guess is you’re bumping uglies,” Promar smirked.

“Promar!” Verhill spat as T put down her pack glaring at him.

“That is none of your business,” M said sharply.

“Then on the way down here you barely talked to each other,” Promar laughed harder and elbowed Verhill, “Good news for me, if they’re on the outs I might get lucky tonight!” T jumped up as Verhill grabbed Promar’s arm angrily.

“I can guarantee that none of us will be sleeping with any of you,” T snarled. Promar ripped his arm out of Verhill’s grip and rose to meet T, he was clearly enjoying the rise he was getting out of her.

“Who’s saying I would need to share?” Promar quipped, “Manke doesn’t even like girls and Verhill doesn’t even like sex!” Verhill jumped up and grabbed the back of Promar’s jacket and pulled him backward so he landed on the ground.

“Or what was it again?” Promar chuckled, “You only like it once you get to know the person, all sentimental like.” Verhill straddled Promar and squatted over him glaring into his face.

“You’re done,” Verhill hissed, “Grab your bedroll and take it down toward the entrance, you aren’t sleeping in here anymore.” Promar rolled his eyes, but stayed silent. Verhill stood, but didn’t walk away forcing Promar to scoot backwards out from under his former commanding officer to stand. In a huff, he snatched up his pack and bedroll and make his way toward the tunnel. Before he disappeared into the darkness, he turned back with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“I’ve always said Verhill, you just haven’t had a good screwing, otherwise you’d want it just as much as others,” he smirked.

“Get out,” Verhill roared, jumping to his feet again, jaw set, fists clenched, staring after Promar like he was going to kill him. Promar was swallowed by the darkness, but they could still hear him chuckling. Verhill plopped back down and stared hard into the fire. They all sat silence again before C broke it.

“That’s, uh, that’s not how it works,” C said quietly.

“What?” Verhill said.

“You can’t just, uh, get ‘one good screwing’ and change, that’s, uh, not how it works,” she said again, blushing a little. Verhill seemed to unclench a little.

“I know,” he sighed, “Promar likes to mess with me. He’s a asshole, great fighter if you’ve got him on your team, but a asshole nonetheless.”

“I understand,” C smiled, “I get it a lot too.”

“You’re team...” Verhill looked at T and M apprehensively.

“No, no,” C shook her head, “They are great, but others.”

“Well, I’m sorry about that,” Verhill smiled.

“Me too,” C nodded back and the group fell quiet again.

“I’m exhausted. I’m going to go lay down,” M said and stood. She hesitated for a moment, glancing at T, who looked up at her.

“I’m gonna stay.” M continued to her bed roll and laid down, closing her eyes and tried to shut out the noise around her. Her concentration was broken by S’s voice.

“Why is T mad at you?” M’s eyes snapped open to see S still staring at her holoscreen with a frown on her face.

“Uh, she’s upset I didn’t tell her about the gopher. I think,” M sighed. S nodded, pursing her lips.

“Understandable.”

“Really?” M scoffed, wondering where S was going with this.

“Had a lot of secrets revealed from beings we thought we knew in the past couple days haven’t we?” S sneered, “You not telling T, you and T not telling C and I, now Infinity. I’m starting to wonder if anything is real.”

“Stop!” A voice snapped from above them. Both S and M looked up to see C and T had walked back from the fire. C was glaring at them and T was looking at C surprised. “I am so tired of this,” C continued. “You realize most beings don’t know everything about each other and they don’t get mad whenever they find it out.”

“The team is built on trust-” S started.

“And we can trust each other without knowing everything about each other,” C snapped back. S quickly snapped her mouth closed. C sighed and sat down on her bed roll. T sat on hers looking apprehensive. S closed her holoscreen.

“Listen, we have a saying back on Tarek,” C began, “Clear drowns, walk in brown.”

“What?” T said, looking disgusted.

“We have a lot of water there. Have you ever seen those lakes that are so beautifully clear that you can see all the way to the bottom and it looks like you can reach the bottom.

“When really the bottom is about 100 ft down,” M finished.

“Yes,” C nods, “Someone could pretend to be transparent about everything and they’re just luring you into drowning. The murky water usually mean the bottom is a lot closer. You may not be able to see everything, but at least you know you’ll be able to keep even footing.” C looked around at her friends to make sure they were really listening as she drove her point across. “Infinity is the one that has lied; really lied. We don’t need to be jumping down each other’s throats for little things we just didn’t tell each other. We don’t need to know everything about each other to know we’ll have each other’s backs on the job. But we do need to tell each other if one of us has upset another, because otherwise we’ll just be cranky and miserable all the time.” C fell silent as the other women either looked around to her peers and stared at the ground.

T stood up, and they all watched her ready to see her storm off, but instead she held a hand out to M. She took it and T lead her around the lake away from the group, out of earshot before saying, “I know you were nervous to tell them, but I can’t keep a secret like that from my friends when I promised I wouldn’t.”

“There are some things I’m not ready tell you yet,” M responded.

T shook her head, inhaling heavily, “C’s right. I know she is, it’s something that’s been pointed out to me recently by someone else too. I don’t need to know everything. I’m not mad about the gopher I never was, it was too much pressure, so I snapped when I heard about the gopher and I’m sorry.”

“That makes sense, I’m sorry too. I was just delaying something I didn’t want to do and I pulled you into it. I swear I will work on that, can you work with me?”

T grinned, “Of course,” and kissed her. They walked back to the group hand in hand.

“I’m sorry for hiding from you both, sneaking around behind your back when you deserved to know,” M told C and S and she sat back down, T beside her.

“So sorry,” T echoed.

“Like I said it was my fault,” M reminded S, “My relationships in the past have been traumatic to say the least. Keeping it from you was more me being scared of something new than anything to do with you. So I hid, and took T with me and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“We’ll help you,” C told her, “But like I said, you don’t need to tell us everything if you’re not ready.” T glanced over to S who’s gaze flickered down, and T looked away.

“I’m sorry for being angry instead of just telling you that I was upset,” S said flatly.

“Okay, are we good?” C asked.

“Yeah, I think so, I am,” T nodded and smiled.

“Me too,” M nodded and S copied her movement.

“Let’s get some sleep then,” C said, “We have a lot to try and figure out tomorrow. I’ll take first watch shift.” S laid down and curled into a ball. T started to stand, but M squeezed her hand and T looked back to her.

“Do you want to move your bed roll next to mine?,” M whispered. T grinned and dragged bed roll up against M’s before she laid down with her chest pressed against M’s back and wrapped an arm around her.

“Those things you’re not ready to tell me… you’re not a spy are you?” T playfully whispered in M’s ear.

“Nah, what spy can’t even shoot a gun?” M whispered back. T chuckled quietly and nestled into M for a few hours sleep.

~

“Wake up!” A rough voice shouted. Each sleeping member of Prism startled awake at the sound. C’s head whipped around to see Verhill stomping over from his little camp. His face was flooded with rage and his gun was trained on the group.

“Whoa!” T jumped up and reached for her own gun.

“Don’t!” Verhill snapped, “Hands up, all of ya.” They each followed his instructions, standing with their hands in the air. C figured he probably knew they could get to their weapons quickly if needed, but he looked so infuriated, she wanted to see what he had to say.

“We had a deal,” Verhill hissed, “I bring you down here. I show you that Infinity is lying. I let you even have your weapons back and you stab me in the back!”

“What are you talking about?” T asked.

“Infinity!” Verhill yelled at her, “Lennet just called us. One of their ships just pulled into orbit. They’ll reach the surface in less than ten minutes!”

“And you think we called them?” M asked.

“You! I think you called them,” Verhill pointed the gun at her, “You sent that thing up to your ship. I told you transmissions off the surface can’t reach anything more than a few hours away, but you sent that thing to your ship. You could have called them. I decided to trust you, I took that risk, and now I’m hanging in the wind!”

“That’s not what the gopher does!” M said, “It couldn’t send a message even if I told it too, it doesn’t have that type of sophisticated programming. Accusing the gopher of sending a message is like accusing a animal. It can be sent to fetch what I tell it to and that’s it.”

“Someone called them,” Verhill growled, “I’m not stupid. This isn’t just good timing.”

“Well have you questioned your own team there?” T nodded over to Manke and Promar, the latter having run back into the cave at the sound of the shouting. Manke already preparing weapons for a possible fight. “Promar was out of your sight for long enough!”

“Don’t you dare!” Verhill was red in the face as he advanced on T and stuck the gun right in her face, “I trust them with my life! They would never, ever even think of it!” Verhill and T stood staring at each other from a few inches away, breathing heavily. T’s face had set in a hard glare.

“You’re going to want to back away,” T warned very slowly and quietly in a tone that made the hairs on M’s arms stand one end. Verhill studied her for a moment and then followed her instructions.

“Um, Verhill?” C said, delicately. He turned his glare to her. “Just wondering, what kind of transmission disrupter do you have?”   
Verhill blinked at her slowly, “What do you mean?”

“Well, there’s all different kinds,” C explained, “Does it cover the entire surface of the moon? And how high up does it sit? Does it only disrupt transmissions from the main altitude, but not from higher ground? Does it sit in the atmosphere and disrupt everything?” Verhill stared at her quietly for a moment.

“I’m not sure,” he finally uttered, “I just bought something to keep tech out.”

“That’s the problem sometimes if you try and block something out,” C sighed, “If you don’t know enough about it then you don’t know all the ways someone could get around it.”

“What are you saying?” Verhill said, with an edge to his voice turning the gun on her, “You’re tech savvy, what did you do?”

“Nothing! I didn’t do anything I swear,” C promised staring at the tip of the gun, “But if Infinity wants this portal as badly as you think, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some sort of surveillance down here and some way to transmit it past your shield.” She twisted her wrist that had her holo-watch wrapped around it. “If you let me get on here for a minute, I can try and find out how they did it.” Verhill and C stared at each other, but there wasn’t the same level of tension as when he stared at T. C tried to put as much reassurance as she could into her gaze as he studied her face. She knew he was wondering just how much more control of his safety he could give them because she would be wondering the same thing if in his shoes.

“I swear, we didn’t do this,” C told him, “Please let me help you.” She inched toward him and put her palm on the top of the gun, and he let her slowly lower it as he continued to stare at her face.

“Fine,” Verhill said quietly and nodded.

“Okay,” C gave him a small smile and nodded, “It’s going to be okay.”

“I’m going to help them prep,” T said walking toward Promar and Manke.

“I’m help,” M said moving to follow.

“Actually M,” S stopped her, “I could use your help with something else.” T gave S a questioning look, but S just nodded to her as she pulled M into the tunnel leading to the canyon and T reluctantly continued over to the men. C opened up her holoscreen and opened an image of the moon. With two fingers she made a pinching motion on the screen and lifted up. A 3D hologram of the moon, double the size of her head materialized before her and Verhill.

“Okay, I’m going to scan for the transmission disrupter,” C told him.

“How do you scan it?” Verhill asked.

“My ship does, transmits the data to me,” C said. A red haze appeared surrounding the image of the moon.

“Okay, so it does cover the entire surface,” C nodded spinning the image so to see every angle of it, “And it doesn’t look like there are any land masses poke up out of the shield.”

“What does that mean?” Verhill asked.

“Just means we scan for something else.” C hit a button on her screen. A moment later two small red dots appeared before them.

“What are those?” Verhill cocked his head to the side.

“Tech,” C said simply and sighed.

“Tech?” Verhill repeated.

“Bots more specifically,” C spun the image and pointed at a red dot, “That one’s at your house.”

“Shit,” Verhill hissed.

“And this one,” C spun the image again and pointed at the second one, “Hold on.” She hit a button on her screen and a blue dot appeared right next to the second red one. She zoomed in on the image and the dots spread apart with the red one to the left of the blue. She pulled a flashlight out of her belt and shined it to her left, searching the cave wall. Verhill looked with her, but her eyes could see better in the dark than his. She caught movement and saw a spherical bot no bigger than her fist flying toward the cave opening. “T!” C called. 

But T, who had noticed the light when C had first turned it on, was already ahead of her. In the span of a second her gun was drawn and shooting at the bot. The little tech tried to make a break for it and three other shots rang out, echoing around the cavern. C looked around her and saw Verhill, Manke, and Promar shooting as well. At least one of the shots found its mark and the bot crashed to the ground. C shut down the holoscreen as all 5 beings ran over to it. She picked it up and studied what was left of the surface. 

“What is that thing?” Promar asked.

“The bot that’s been spying on us,” C said, “I’d have to study it more, but my best guess is it records everything and then flies out into space above the transmission disrupter shield and sends the data to Infinity.” Verhill stood back and groaned.

“Shit!” he shouted, kicking a small stone across the cave floor.

“I’m sorry,” C said.

“After everything I’ve done to keep my life simple, to keep from having technology screw me over again and it’s a stupid little bot that messes it all up!” Verhill shouts. C’s watch beeped and she opened the holoscreen again. The 3D image materialized before them again. The blue dot was still there, but this time there was only one red dot. It had moved from its position on the surface to hovering above the red haze covering the moon.

“That’s the other bot,” C pointed to it, “It’s probably transmitting that this one has been destroyed.”

“Oh great,” T groaned.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” C said. “If Infinity has sent a ship they are probably sending a mercenary team.”

“Mercenary team?” Verhill asked, “Infinity has their own mercenaries?”

“Unfortunately,” T scoffed and began looking around the room, “We can bottleneck them coming out of the tunnel, we just need to move these rocks-”

“Now wait a minute,” Verhill interrupted, “If Infinity has their own mercenaries then why send your team in?”

“Mercenaries are messy,” a voice said, everyone turned to see it was Manke who had finally spoken.

“Right,” C nodded, “They faked those documents, they trying to take this place quietly, with the appearance of being above the board which means sending in us. But now they know that’s not going to work, so this is their last resort.”

“Yes, fantastic, gold stars all around,” T jumped in, “But right now we are completely trapped. There are boulders off to the side there, we need move them over here to narrow off the tunnel opening.”

“Right, let’s go,” Verhill nodded to his men, “Do as she says.” Promar and Manke followed T and they began rolling over and piling large boulders on top of each other. Verhill stepped closer to C as she continued working with the 3D image of the moon.

“What are you doing now?” He asked. 

“I’m trying to see if I can pick up where the mercenary team is so we can keep an eye on them,” C explained.

“I’m sorry that I assumed it was your team,” he told her. C shrugged.

“You’re under a lot of stress,” she said and smiled at him. He chuckled.

“Yeah I would say so. Still, thank you for helping us. I may not like tech, but you’re right. You can’t shut it out if it’s being used against you as a weapon.”

“Well you focus on the mercenaries right now. I’ll handle the tech,” C smiled at him. Verhill chuckled.

“You know, I know I was just pointing a gun at you, but maybe if we make it through this we could meet up sometime, just us,” Verhill said. C froze and slowly raised her gaze to meet his.

“Really? Are you’re asking me out? We are trying not to die right now, could we maybe do this later?” C raised her eyebrows in judgement. Verhill’s face fell.

“Sorry,” he said and C returned to her hologram where a few blue lights had just appeared. “That’s us,” C pointed at the lights, “And hold on, they have a block up, but I should be able to get past it.” She hit a few more buttons on the screen and red lights blossomed on the surface the green of the moon. “And there’s Infinity.”

“It looks like they are still on the surface,” Verhill observed.

“Yeah we still have a little time,” C commented.

“Then you should help us!” T called over. C and Verhill looked to where T, Manke and Promar almost had the tunnel almost blocked off. C closed the holoscreen so she and Verhill could grab some rocks double the size of their heads and carried them over. 

“OK, Verhill, C keep building up the wall. Manke, Promar, come here,” T said and the two men followed her further into the cavern. C couldn’t hear them, but T was pointing at the rock pile and seemed to be explaining something to Manke and Promar, who were nodding. Then Manke pulled a grenade out of a pants and T grinned wide.

“A grenade? No way,” C ran over, “The tunnel could cave in and we could get trapped in here.”

“It’s customizable,” Manke showed her, “It will be on the lowest setting. Nothing will cave in.”

“Besides we have another way out,” T looked at the portal.

“The portal? We have no idea where that leads! It could be halfway across the galaxy,” C gaped at T.

“I’m just saying we have options,” T said, “Relax, C, I have a plan.”

C’s watch beeped before she could ask anything about the plan. She opened the holoscreen and saw the red dots speeding along the surface of the moon. They were heading in the direction of a solitary blue dot on the surface.

“Is that-?” Verhill pointed at the blue dot.

“It’s Lennet,” C nodded. The red dots drew close to the blue dot before veering to the left and the blue dot disappeared.

“What was that? What happened to Lennet?” Verhill stepped closer to the holographic moon.

“I’m not sure,” C shook her head.

“I think your house is gone,” T said, coming up behind them. C gave her a pointed look trying to say she already knew that, but she was trying not to tell him that. T shrugged.

“They killed Lennet?!” Verhill exclaimed.

“And they are going to do the same to us, we need to get cover,” T hit her comm, “M, S, where the did you go?”

“We’re right here,” S said, walking through the opening in the rocks piled up in her absence, followed by M, “Very nice, who’s this for?”

“We have a mercenary team coming,” T told her.

“Great,” S groaned.

“They are coming right now, get cover. M, while it’s just gunfire get behind me, but if they get in the cavern, take them down,” T instructed and ducked behind a pillar with her gun poking out around it.

“No, I need M with me, come on,” S looked at M and tilted her head to indicate she should follow her. T knew they didn’t have time to argue so she just nodded. M and S ran further into the cavern, close to the lake and crouched behind a boulder.

~

M peered out from behind their hiding spot. She could her team and Verhill and his men all with their own hiding spots, tense with guns pointing towards the opening to the tunnel. Beside her S pulled out her gun and followed suit. The light from the portal gave everything in the cavern a light blue hue as everything fell silent. A beep came from C’s watch and M turned her head, but she was the only one, everyone else with experience in firefights kept their eyes on the tunnel.

“They reached the tunnel,” C said quietly, but in the stillness of the cavern her voice echoed back around them. M turned her eyes back on the opening as they all waited. M jumped as she heard a gun ignite and pebbles chipped of a rock near the tunnel entrance. T had fired and suddenly the cavern erupted with sound. Plasma blasts burst from the darkness of the tunnel and everyone in the cavern pressed into their rock shelters while taking chances to shoot into the tunnel. She could hear occasional shouts of pain from the tunnel that told her the shots found their targets.

“Now!” T shouted and M looked over to her in confusion. Manke threw something at one side of the rock pile and M covered her ears just before a small blast blew at the base. The makeshift wall they just created collapsed and M could hear the cries of the mercenaries as they were crushed. There was a momentary lapse in the fight as the dust settled, but a moment later 4 hoverbikes shot over the fallen boulders into the cavern. The riders were clad in all black with tactical helmets on and guns out, shooting at anyone they could see. M heard someone cry out and looked over to see Promar laying on the ground clutching a bleeding leg.

“Bikes!” T called out, and she shot at the vehicles. M saw the others aiming for the bikes or their riders. T hit one and it spun out, throwing the rider off. They landed near M and she ran over to them. The rider’s gun had flown out of their hand and M reached it first throwing it into the lake. Before the rider could regain their footing M brought a foot down hard into the mask on their helmet and the rider fell still. Behind her, S shouted for her to move and M turned back to her before jumping out of the way as S shot the unconscious rider.

“Just to be sure, now get back over here!” S called to her, but M was already running and diving behind the rock. She looked back to the rest of the fight. There was only one rider left in the air. The other two lay still on the ground. Bikes either lying yards away smoking or had smashed into rock walls when they lost their rider. The last rider was flying low and swerving in between rock formations. Verhill and Manke were both tracking the rider with their guns trying to line up a shot. The rider got Manke first though, their shot hitting him in the stomach. 

“No!” Verhill called out before standing straight up and ran at the driver shooting after them. The rider shot at Verhill and hit his hand. Verhill cried out as his gun flew out of his now bleeding hand and he clutched it to his chest. C, who had run over to Promar to stop the bleeding now ran over to Verhill, ducking down as she went. At first M couldn’t see T, but she finally spotted her crouched behind a rock across the cavern from where she had been just minute ago. She had holstered her gun and her eyes were focused on the rider. She looked like a cat about to pounce.

“Oh no,” S groaned and before M could ask what, T leapt at the passing bike and tackled the rider to the ground. The bike wildly whipped around without a driver and S pulled M away before the bike crashed into the rock they had just been hiding behind. M looked around the rock pillar S had pulled her behind and saw T and the rider lying yards away from each other on the rocky floor of the cavern. The rider was up first and reached for their gun, but they had lost it in the fall. T pulled her gun out of her belt when the rider leapt on top of her and wrestled it away from her, rolling them around the floor. M ran from her hiding spot to go help, but before she could reach them her gopher flew into the cavern heading right for her.

“Finally, that took long enough,” S called out. As M watched it getting closer, a flash of movement near the collapsed rockpile caught her eye. One of the mercenaries wasn’t dead, they raised their gun and aimed for her. M leapt behind the rock pillar, but the shot caught her in the shoulder. She cried out as she fell. She looked down to her right shoulder and saw it covered in blood. The cavern seemed to swim in front of her and everything sounded muffled. She saw C stand up and shoot the half crushed mercenary. She hit them in the chest and the being fell still. S bent over her shoulder, examining her.

“You’ll be fine, it’s just a graze, put pressure on it,” S said and quickly stood and ran to where the gopher had landed, exactly where had been standing when she was shot. She quickly opened the lid and began pulling out its contents. M slowly looked over to T. The rider was still on top of her struggling for the gun. T was throwing punches and knees into their stomach, but they still held on. Instead T reached for the rider’s helmet and pulled it off to reveal a woman with bright red scaly skin and black hair. T kept hold on the helmet and slammed it into the side of the woman’s head. The woman cried out and fell off her, but the effort had loosened T’s grip on her gun and it skittered across the floor. The woman pulled herself up and ran after it, but T followed close behind and pulled her collapsible baton out of her utility belt.

The woman reached the gun and whipped around just in time to see T riding high on the fight, descend on her and furiously swing her baton. The gun flew out of the woman’s hand and she cried out in pain. Breathing heavily and radiating fury, T swung the baton back in the opposite direction and cracked the woman in the side of her head. Without a sound, the woman crumpled to the ground. T stood still for a moment staring at the woman taking deep breaths. Even through the pain M could see T’s eyes looked dead and cold. She could see nothing of the silly, sarcastic woman she could usually see behind them. After a moment T blinked slowly, and relaxed her shoulders. She walked in M’s direction, picking up her gun along the way and without looking shoot the woman as she continued over to M. T kneeled down beside her, slipping her hand into hers and smoothed a hand across her forehead. M could see some life had returned to her blue eyes and smiled up at her.

“You ok?” M asked. T raised her eyebrows in surprise.

“Really? You’re asking me that?” T grinned as humor flooded her face and the last of the tenacious warrior disappeared. M chuckled softly.

“C, I need your help,” S called. M looked over to where C had been sitting with her arm around Verhill’s shoulder who was leaning over Manke, who had passed out. C rubbed his back and patting his shoulder before getting to her feet and running over to S.

“What’s in the gopher?” T asked.

“S is going to destroy the portal. She found a way and needed some stuff from her lab,” M said softly. Now that the excitement of the fight was over, the cavern was beginning to swim again. 

“Well hopefully that will make Infinity back off,” T said. M nodded.

“Yeah, they owe me a new gopher,” M scoffed, “S has to fly it into the portal to destroy.”

“Aw, I’m sorry,” T said. She rested her hand on M’s forehand and her thumb made small brushing moments across it to comfort her. M shrugged, but immediately flinched and gasped in pain. T squeezed her hand.

“It’s fine. I’ll make a new one.”

“We’re ready to go,” S said, turning both T and M’s attention to her and C. Verhill, too, had joined them at the edge of the lake. C had her holoscreen out to guide the gopher. It levitated off the ground before rocketing across the water and into the portal. At first nothing happened, but then the cavern started to shake and a loud sucking sound emanated from the portal. As they all watched the edges of the great, blue, spinning circle folded in on itself as though the portal was trying to pull itself to the other side. Then the shaking stopped and the sucking sound disappeared and all that was left in the cavern wall was a huge, round crater.

“The Infinity ship just left,” C said. Everyone’s gaze turned to her as she stared at the 3D hologram of the moon she just opened.

“Why?” Verhill asked.

“I’m sure all of these mercenaries had body cameras,” T said nodded to the fallen bodies around the cavern, “I’m sure they saw the whole thing. The portal is gone, they have no need for the moon anymore.”

“Well what about us? We’re witnesses, we can tell everyone what they did,” Verhill pointed out. His face was pale from blood loss. T snorted.

“One of the biggest corporations in the universe just attacked us to get at a portal that shouldn’t even exist, and no longer does. I’m sure these mercenaries have miles of red tape and none of it will lead back to Infinity. We have no proof. You think anyone is going to believe us?” She said disparagingly, “Killing us would make a bigger mess than we could possibly cause by telling beings this story.” 

“What?! You’re Prism!” Verhill’s chest puffed out in anger and advanced on T, “Beings trust you! You work with the Authority! You can’t just let this go! They tried to kill us friend!” C ran in front of Verhill and put a hand on his chest to stop him.

“I’m sorry,” she told him softly, “But we are a boogeyman to most beings, and like T said, we don’t have proof on Infinity and without it, the Authority can’t do anything.” C gazed him with a look that mixed sorrow and pleading. “We will do something about Infinity, I swear, but we can’t do anything right now.” Verhill’s face slowly shifted from rage to sorrow and nodded. He sighed and looked around the cavern to Promar who was watching them, holding his leg where a rag was tied around his wound, to Manke’s unconscious body.

“Well then, I’ll get everyone healed up as best as I can and let’s get out of here,” S said, “I never want to go spelunking ever, ever again.”

~

Three of Infinity’s hoverbikes hadn’t been crushed by rocks, so they would never to take two trips to get everyone up to the surface. S patched M up as much as she could, and while M insisted she was fine, she still winced whenever she moved her arm, but they needed her to drive a bike. First Verhill and M flew out C and T, respectively, as S stayed to tend to Promar’s and Manke’s wounds. Before he left S assured Verhill that while it was a bad injury Manke would live. C climbed on the bike behind Verhill and, after asking permission, placed her hands on his waist. T gave C a small smile and a wink, but C ignored her. The trip back to the surface was much faster than their trip down and before long they reached the smouldering remains of Verhill’s house.

The man didn’t even have time to really process before he and M had to turn around to go collect the others. C and T stared at the little blackened square of burning wood and twisted metal. It was still too hot to even begin looking for anything that could be salvaged, but without saying anything they both knew nothing could have survived.

Finally they heard the whine of the hoverbikes returning. Promar had Manke strapped to him, so the still unconscious man wouldn’t fall, as S and Verhill drove themselves. They slowed in their approach and before he had even stopped Verhill hopped off and ran over to what, just an hour ago, had held everything he owned, and more importantly his friend. As he reached the edge of the wreckage, his shoulder lost all their tension and they could see him deflate. He stood there, with his back to them for a long moment. No one said anything, they just let him have his time in silence. S and T helped disconnect Manke from Promar and pulled him off the bike to lay him on the ground as Promar joined his friend in grieving.

“Listen,” C broke the silence, “we don’t normally do this, but I think my team would agree.” She shared a pleading look with each of her teammates, “We could maybe give you a ride somewhere if you need it.”

“Um,” S said and she also shared a look with T and M, “I- I mean, we don’t really have guest rooms, and we can’t let you see the ship for security purposes, so you would have to stay in our cells.”

“But not as prisoners or anything,” T clarified. 

Verhill turned around and stood, his face crestfallen, “I appreciate your offer, thank you, but I have a ship. Nothing fancy, but it will get us somewhere away from here.”

“I’m sorry,” C said. She felt like she had said it a million times, but couldn’t think of anything else to possibly say.

“Thanks, you did what you could,” Verhill sighed.

“We said we’d help you keep your land and your home, and we failed,” C stared at the ground.

“Well we didn’t say we wou-” S began.

“S!” M hissed and gave her a sharp shake of her head and S remained quiet.

“You didn’t hand me over them, you listened, and I appreciate that,” Verhill said to C, “My home may be gone, but I’m still here and that’s all I can really ask for.” He gave her a small smile and extended his hand. She returned both the smile and the handshake. He turned to look at M, “It’d be easier to bring our ships here. M nodded and both she and Verhill climbed back on bikes and sped off. Not twenty minutes later, Art Two, and a spaceship that was barely bigger than the little ship, landed next to the group. Verhill and Promar carried Manke between them onto their ship and they had one foot in the door before C suddenly jumped off her bike and ran over, stopping them.

“You know, we, uh, made it through that, and uh, we’re not trying not to die right now,” C began, stuttering a little, while a little smile appeared on Verhill’s face. A nervous grin swept across her own face. “Anyway, we survived, so... do you still want to ask me something?” Verhill laughed and Promar took Manke’s entire weight into the ship. Verhill jumped off the little ramp to stand facing C.

“Well, I was wondering if you like to meet up sometime. I am asking you out, as you put earlier,” he grinned at her. She smiled and took a deep breath.

“I don’t know, I’m mean, I know you’re not really into tech so it might be hard to get ahold of you,” C smirked up at him and behind her she heard a snort of laughter. She turned back to see S rolling her eyes and T hiding her face over M’s shoulder trying to laugh as quietly as possible. M smacked her on the arm to get her to stop even though she was smiling herself. C turned back to Verhill, who was shaking his head and failing to hide a smile. He pulled a small rectangle out of his pocket and flipped the cover over. Unclipping a small cylindrical item from the side he scribbled something and then ripped it off and handed it to C before returning the cylinder and rectangle to his pocket.

“Is this paper?” C asked. Verhill snickered.

“Yes, but on it I wrote this ship comm code. You’ll always be able to find me with that,” he pointed to the series of numbers, letters, and symbols on the page.

“OK, I’ll talk to you soon then,” C pocketed the paper.

“Talk to you soon,” Verhill nodded. He raised a hand in goodbye to the rest of team, climbed on board his ship, and disappeared behind the door. C walked back to the shuttle they boarded Art Two in silence. The little craft was the first familiar thing they had seen in days, and finally able to relax, they fell into their seats. M prepped for take off as the others strapped in and got ready to go home.

“I am immediately falling in bed, when we get back. I’m exhausted,” T groaned and leaned her head against the wall.

“I need a shower before I can sleep,” S grumbled.

“I’m going to my library,” C said and the rest of the team, even M turned to give her demonstrative looks.

“What is wrong with you?” T chided her, “We had got shot at, hiked to the bottom of a canyon, got shot at again-”

“And in some cases, actually got shot, thank you,” M interjected, her shoulder winced as though just the memory caused pain.

“But you want to go to the library?!” T finished. C shrugged and nodded.

“Infinity tried to kill us. I want to know why,” C said as Art Two lifted off the ground.

“Me too,” S sighed.

“Well to each their own,” T shook her head, “But the important part here is” -she held for dramatic effect- “C has a date!” The last word was said with a sing-songy lilt as S and M broke into laughter and C called from them to shut up with a huge grin spread across her face.


	8. Prism Part 8- Into the Expanse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 8: Into the Expanse
> 
> The elite bounty hunter team, Prism, has achieved legend status  
> throughout the galaxy. Its teammates, known only by their  
> codenames C, M, S, and T, are some of the most respected or  
> feared women across all star systems, depending on whether you  
> hired them or they are after you. Over eight novellas, follow as the  
> team hunts down fugitives, prevents a virus outbreak, navigates  
> criminally inclined ex-girlfriends, and more. This story combines  
> LGBTQ+ characters with action and adventure in outer space;  
> where each of them will face past traumas, overcome differences,  
> and figure out who they can really trust.

M and T lay sleeping curled against each other on T’s bed in the early hours of the morning. They had fallen asleep pressed more tightly together, but the loss of consciousness had made them drift apart.

A soft light slowly blossomed from beyond the tray edge of the ceiling to simulate the growing light of a sunrise. Without a stationary sun or turning planet to tell them when it was morning, afternoon, and evening, they relied on Art’s automated clock set to Galaxy Standard Time. M stirred and slowly opened her eyes. She looked at her watch and groaned, curling back under the covers and scooting back to press her back up against the still sleeping T. Shutting her eyes to block out the light, she knew if she asked, Art would turn it off, but she wasn’t sure how late T wanted to sleep and didn’t want to mess up her morning routine.

M felt T shift behind her and roll onto her back. M turned to her other side to face her sleeping girlfriend. They had only been seeing each other for about six weeks, but when you spend basically every moment with someone it felt like it had been longer. M had been on the ship for a little over fours months at this point and she had been interested in T for the majority of that time; at least since T had stopped being hostile and untrusting. 

M smiled at her own memories and once again scooted closer to T, this time wrapping her arm around the blue-haired being’s middle and laid her head on T’s arm like a pillow. Pretty much from the moment M watched T fumble for words in front of her ex, Nan, M was done for. This being, who not a week ago, had been berating her for not being qualified for the team, was suddenly just as lost in front of a woman as M was when holding a gun. It was adorable.

After returning from their mission on Verhill’s moon, their relationship had moved quickly. Make out sessions in the engine room moved to sleeping in the same bed every night, to sex, all of it easy and terrifying at the same time. M saw the side of T’s mouth quirk up slightly when she wrapped her arm around her.

“You awake?” M whispered.

“Uh-uh,” T hummed quietly and M chuckled.

“Yeah it’s kind of early for you,” M chided.

“And you,” T said softly, but smiled wider. T placed her left hand on the arm M had wrapped around her and made soft stroking motions with her thumb. M sighed and closed her eyes, attempting to give in to the bit of sleepiness that was still hanging on. They laid there for a little while longer. M lightly dozed, but in her more lucid moments, she could tell T had fallen back asleep from her deep, slow breathing. M finally gave up on returning to sleep and just enjoyed the feeling on T’s stomach rising and falling with each breath.

After a while M looked at her watch again, it had been about two hours since she had first woken up and the light emanating from the ceiling had grown brighter. She nestled her head into the crook of T’s arm to block out the light.

“Art, kill the lights,” T said suddenly and the light immediately dissipated.

“Thanks,” M whispered.

“‘Course, babe,” T muttered eyes still closed. M watched her face for a long moment before taking a deep breath.

“I have question,” M stated.

“What’s up?” T’s eyes remained closed.

“Well, I was wondering if maybe, and if you aren’t comfortable with this I completely understand, because I know the team is really important to you and I know you don’t always follow Prism rules exactly, but I know you like this one-” M rambled until T finally opened her eyes and turned her body to face M and put a hand on her cheek.

“Whoa,” T said and it was all she had to say. M slowed to a stop and took a breath.

“This is part of that,” M gestured toward herself, “not being very good at this thing.”

“I figured,” T nodded, grinning. M knew T wanted to say it was cute like she did last time, but appreciated her restraint. “What is you’re trying to ask?”

“I just wondered if,” M spoke more slowly, but refrained from making eye contact, “since we’re sleeping together now, we might tell each other our real names.” M’s eyes flicked back up to T’s face. The smile was still there, but it had left her eyes. 

“Oh,” T uttered in a tone M couldn’t read.

“I know this rule is there for important reasons so if you aren’t comfortable with telling me then that’s okay. I just wondered since it’s not like anyone, at least that we know of, has been in a relationship in Prism, this is sort of new territory and we sort of have to figure out the rules as we go-”

“Rambling again,” T interjected and M paused.

“Does any of that make sense?” M asked.

“Yeah, it does,” T nodded. Her hand fell to M’s shoulder and she stared at it, not speaking for a minute, thinking. “I think you’re right. We’re in a relationship and we should know that about each other. I’m just worried, if we knew each other’s real names, we’d slip up. Someone would get hurt out in the field and we’d called out to them and someone potentially really bad could hear it. They could find out everything about us.”

“You think you’d slip up?” M asked.

“Maybe, I don’t know,” T said exhaling heavily, “That’s what makes me nervous. I don’t want it to be me that puts you, puts our team in danger.”

“Yeah,” M nodded.

“I want to know though. I just don’t think I’m ready yet. I bet it’s really pretty,” T smiled. 

“I don’t know, I always thought it was kind of common,” M chuckled, “Now I bet yours is cool. Did your parents give you more of an Ongori name or more of a human name?”

T shrugged, “Kind of a little bit of both.”

“Fitting,” M fell silent and they laid there for a minute smiling, “Thanks for considering it. I appreciate it.”

“Of course, anytime,” T smiled and leaned in to kiss her. M pulled into T, tightening her arm around T’s waist, deepening the kiss when they heard a knock on the door.

“Ignore it,” T whispered as M turned to the door. T moved her kisses to M’s neck and slid her hand into M’s hair trying to get her to turn her head back.

“It might be important,” M whispered back, but hesitated for a little too long before calling, “Come in.” T groaned and dropped back onto the bed in a huff as the door slid open and S walked into the room.

“Is this how I’m always going to find you two now?” S teased them. T propped herself up on her elbow and gave S a mischievous grin.

“Only if you want it to be,” T said and gave S an exaggerated wink. M couldn’t help but laugh loudly while S shook her head, though she had a smile on her face.

“Yeah I walked right into that one,” S sighed, “Listen in all seriousness, I need to talk to you both. I’m worried about C.”

“What, why?” M asked, humor quickly changing to concern as she rolled over to face S.

“Why don’t you just change into actual clothes for once and meet me in common area,” S paused, “I’ll get coffee ready.”

“Ah, you’re the best,” T exclaimed, throwing the bed covers off of them.

After M returned to her own quarters to get new clothes, it only took them both about five minutes to change and meet S out in the common area. S was sitting in the armchair that by some unspoken agreement, everyone knew was hers. Two steaming cups of coffee sat waiting on the table. T grabbed the one that was a much lighter shade of brown and handed the other to M before they both sat on the couch facing S.

“Why are you worried about C?” M asked before taking a sip of her coffee. T proceeded to take great gulps from her mug as though it were water and she had been lost in a desert for weeks.

“She’s been down in her library for a week,” S said as though dropping a revelation on them. T and M exchanged a look.

“She’s always in her library,” T countered.

“Not like this she’s not. Listen I know you two are just starting this relationship and it’s all cute and everything is wonderful and you have your heads up in the clouds, but I need to come back down for a minute and notice what’s happening on this ship.” T and M exchanged another look and S sighed. “Ever since Infinity’s attack she takes all her meals down there. She has barely slept. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is just sleeping down there as well.”

“Do you think it’s weird sleeping while you’re floating in midair,” T wondered, “Or is it like sleeping on a really soft mattress?”

“T!” S snapped.

“What would you like us to do?” M asked and S’s annoyance subsided if for at least a moment.

“I think we should go talk to her. Get her to put aside this obsession, if even for a few hours so she can get some rest in her bed and have a meal with us.” T and M once again exchanged a look. 

“We at least have to try!”

“Like an intervention,” T said.

“Yes.”

“Okay, let’s go,” T slapped her hands on her knees and stood up. M followed behind, but S didn’t move from her chair as she called after them.

“Wait, you don’t want to, I don’t know, prepare something? That’s usually how interventions go. You write a letter telling the person how you love them and how you think they are hurting themselves.”

“She’s not on drugs, S. We’re basically just asking her to come out of her room,” T rolled her eyes. “Besides, I think I’m pretty good on my feet.” She shrugged and looked at M.

“Yeah, depends on the situation, but me too,” M nodded back.

“Good, let’s go,” T said again as she and M continued over to the lift.

“Oh, okay, well I think I have some notes in here,” S jumped out of her chair and quickly followed the two women onto the lift as T told Art where they were headed. S opened up her holo-screen watch to pull up some bullet pointed notes that she read as they traveled one level down to the library.

The women all walked into the outer chamber and switched off the artificial gravity before finally pushing out into the cavernous room that they all called “The Library.” There were no books in sight, but the large screen of C’s computer covered the outer wall of Art, curving along with the sides of the ship. C was floating halfway up in the room, staring at the screen, her fingers rapidly flying across her holo-screen. All three woman made awkward swimming motions and floated up to her. They weren’t as experienced as C at maneuvering in this room.

“Hi C,” S said as they drew closer. C started and turned to her see her friends.

“Oh, hi,” C looked confused, but not displeased that they were there, “I didn’t hear you come in. What are you doing here?”

“You hear everything,” T looked disconcerted as the glanced at C’s double pointed ears.

“We haven’t seen you in a couple days. We were getting worried,” M said. S shot her a look, but didn’t contradict her.

“You mean, S pulled you two out of bed and said you should be worried?” C laughed.

“No! We noticed…” T began, but trailed off when C smiled knowingly and tilted her head at her, “Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.” 

“Thank you, I appreciate you all coming down here, but I’m fine,” C assuredly, “I am really close to cracking this. I just need a little more time.”

“C, you haven’t been up to bed in over 24 hours,” S said, floating in front of her in an attempt to block the gigantic screen.

“No way, I took a little nap, but it’s still-” she opened up the clock on the screen behind S and faltered, “Oh, okay, it has been over a day, but like I said, I’m really close.”

“Is anti-grav like sleeping on a really soft mat-

“What are you even working on?” M interrupted.

“M, we are trying to get her out of the room, not keep all of us in here,” S hissed.

“No, I can show you real quick,” C minimized the program she was working on and opened up a file titled, INFINITY. “So I’ve been trying to find out why Infinity lied to us and wanted that portal so badly, right? Enough to kill for it? Well, I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’ve found a whole bunch of other shady stuff.”

“You had me at shady,” T said, with an excited edge to her voice. M was staring at the screen too so S conceded and let C walk them through what she had found.

“I wasn’t entirely sure where to start first, I tried searching for anything related to both Infinity and portals, but I didn’t really find anything. They didn’t use portals for any business when they were legal. In fact, Maion herself led this huge campaign against portals saying they were incredibly dangerous and was a big part into why they were outlawed and subsequently destroyed. I guess they killed her husband and daughter.”

“Yikes,” T whispered.

“Then why does she want one now?” M asked.

“No idea,” C continued, “So that wasn’t leading anywhere so I thought I tried hacking Infinity’s mainframes which was virtually impossible so that’s when I hopped on some Dark Net forums to see if there was some weird rumors going around about Infinity.”

“And?” S asked, now fully invested in the conversation.

“Well Infinity is a giant corporation, there’s always going to be weird rumors around them and shady dealings. I researched some of them, and some seem like they could be pretty accurate, like did you know that all the crops on Cycrava were basically wiped out after a delegation from Infinity went to the moon to try and buy it off the owners, but the owners refused. Cycrava’s crops where a competitor to Infinity’s farms division and the moon is really remote. Literally no one comes or goes from it. There were no signs of failing crops until after Infinity left and they were the only change the moon had seen in six months!”

“That’s speculative,” S said.

“But not improbable,” T said, “What else?”

“Just a bunch of little things that had nothing to do with portals, but I researched them all and the being who posted accurate rumors the most goes by the username ‘ItIsNotGiven’,” C pulled up the forum where ItIsNotGiven posted.

“‘ItIsNotGiven’?” M asked dubiously, “Are they playing with us? Not telling us if it’s real or not?”

“No, it’s funny,” C giggled. She looked at her friends around her who all had doubtful or confused looks on their faces. “Cause it comes from the latin phrase that was the motto for philosophers meaning there is only the theory of potential infinity.” The team exchanged more confused looks. “And everything he is posting is things that Infinity, the company, could potentially have done?”  
The team still had no inkling of recognition on their faces. “Do any of you even read?!”

“Can you continue please?” T asked sharply. C turned back to the screen shaking her head in disapproval.

“Okay, so I looked through all their posts and some are bogus, but one is weird,” C pulled up a post from the forum. “Basically it says that Infinity is experimenting on different types of beings. They don’t know why they are doing this, they don’t know what the experiment actually entails, they are just saying that beings are disappearing. And it’s all beings that won’t really be missed, either they were sold into slavery or they were arrested and being transferred.”

“Oh!” T exclaimed, eyes growing wide.

“What?” M asked.

“That being! That, that,” T snapped her fingers as she tried to remember something, “That- Martor!” She remembered and pointed at S. “Remember when M and C went to go get The Tube, Martor was telling us that beings who are being transferred in the authority were disappearing! We thought they were just giving us a load of bullshit.”

“That’s exactly what it was, beings don’t just disappear when they have been given to the Authority,” S said resolutely. “It’s a government entity, they wouldn’t just give prisoners to Infinity.”

“I agree, so of course I researched it,” C brought up another window filled with mugshots or posed pictures of beings. “These are all the beings that have gone missing in the galaxy recently.”

“C! The entire galaxy? There must be thousands!” S cried out gesturing at the screen.

“Let me finish, please,” C tapped on her holo-screen, “I cross-referenced these with recent arrests or warrants reported and on the Dark Net with posts about slaves for sale.”

“One of these days we need to crack down on the slavers,” T said with a scowl on her face.

“Agreed, but one problem at a time, babe,” M said rubbing T’s arm.

“Okay, so, I filtered out anyone who didn’t match the criteria and I came up with these folks,” C hit a button on her holoscreen and the pictures on the screen shuffled around. The top of the window read, ‘292 results’.

“292!” S groaned.

“Let me finish,” C sounded a little exasperated, “I then thought, Infinity sent us to Oxfrimon to get Verhill out of the way. What if they had used us like that in the past? That had us pick up beings they wanted under false pretenses.”

“Oh no,” M whispered.

“Yeah. So I then cross-referenced that with beings that we helped catch lately.” She hit a button on her screen and the pictures shuffled around again until 4 giant pictures of beings stared down at them them from the screen.

“Stock Rebin, my first job,” M said.

“Tyker, Martor,” S gasped.

“And Elitha,” C finished.

“That slaver ship,” T pointed out.

“What?” M asked.

“The job Nan hired us for. That slaver ship was way too high tech and fancy. Plus, Derg and Shury were the only beings on that ship! There are never only two beings in slaver holds. We knew something was weird!” She gestured as though she meant to slam her hand on a table, but floating in midair gave no relief for her anger.

“If we hadn’t saved them, they probably would be on this list. So don’t beat yourself up, we did help some beings,” M said gently.

“Well, it’s not all all our fault,” C said.

“What do you mean?” S asked.

“Well all these beings have something in common,” C said tapping again on her holo-screen.

“Besides us,” T said darkly.

“Yeah, it took some digging because some of the original transferred files have been doctored, but when I found the real documents, these four beings and 52 others all have one transfer agent in common.” The pictures on the screen shuffled again and the top of the window said ‘56 results’.

“Jesper,” S’s mouth dropped open. Skeptical to a fault, C’s information finally hit home for her.

“Yeah,” C said, and hit a button on her screen. Jesper’s official Authority ID image appeared on screen. “My guess is Infinity has been paying him under the table to quietly send beings their way.

"What does this have to do with the portal?” T asked rubbing a hand across her face.

“I have no idea, but once I found all this out, the portal stuff was kind of put on the back burner.”

“Then what have you been working on?” T snapped, “You said you were close to something. What are you close to if it has nothing to do with the portal?” C gave T a long look.

“Don’t” C said simply, still steadily staring at T who broke under her gaze.

“Sorry,” T dropped her shoulders and turned her head away.

“I’ve been trying to find the lab,” C told them.

“What lab?” S asked.

“Well if Infinity is doing experiments on these beings then there’s got to be a secret lab somewhere, right? I’ve been trying again to hack into Infinity’s mainframe, but it’s still heavily encrypted. I at least know what I’m looking for this time so I know what to target.” C explained. They all fell quiet staring at the screen.

“Why are you looking for it when we can just ask him?” T said darkly and pointed at the image of Jesper.

“You want us to go ask a corrupt member of the Authority where Infinity is keeping beings who could possibly be experimented on? I mean, maybe- maybe you’re wrong, C, and he didn’t do anything.” S shot an uncomfortable glance up at Jesper’s picture.

“Yeah, he’s our best lead,” T nodded. She turned to C, “Besides, is there any chance he didn’t do this?”

“I don’t see how he could be innocent,” C shook her head, frowning. She looked over to S whose mouth was in a tight frown, “I’m sorry.”

“We need to gom S,” M said, “If there is a chance we can help beings who we wronged, even unknowingly, we need to do it.”

“You’re right,” S nodded and sighed. She rubbed her eyes with her thumb and middle finger, “Please don’t tell me he’s on a ship right now.”

“Nope, he’s on leave... in a building that provides apartments to Authority officers,” C said apprehensively, bring up a window on the screen that looked like a map with a locator beacon.

“Even better,” S groaned.

~

S fidgeted as she leaned against a wall in a hallway. The building around her was quiet. Doors lining the hallway were all labelled with ascending numbers.

“Stop fidgeting,” T’s voice came over the comms.

“I’m not fidgeting,” S whispered, but she dropped her hands to her sides. “I’m just nervous. I don’t exactly deceive beings I thought were our allies everyday, in a building where I’m surrounded by them. And I don’t like not having my gun,”

“We’ve been over this, you need to do a little shameless flirting. You’ll be fine, just think, ‘What would T do?’,” T coached.

“That’s not really helpful,” S muttered.

“Why?” T asked.

“Because you are terrible at this,” S scoffed. M’s laughter come through the comms. T didn’t respond for a moment.

“Hurt. I am hurt. Both of you have deeply wounded me,” T finally said. S looked up and saw Jesper rounding the corner.

“Sh, he’s coming,” S said and turned to face him, propping her shoulder on the wall. She gave him a grin as he approached.

“S, this is a pleasant surprise,” Jesper greeted her, grinning back, “What are you doing here… at my apartment?”

“We were in town, thought I’d come say hi,” S tilted her head to the side, grin still flashing.

“I didn’t hear about a job in town, or did I miss something?” Jesper asked.

“No, no, private client. Nothing that the Authority needs to worry about,” S still had the wide grin spread across her face. Silence fell between the two and S heard T groan in her ear.

“Anyway, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to get some coffee or something?” S asked, a little too loudly, trying not to hear T.

“Uh, yeah, I’d like that,” Jesper said, “Come on in, I just have to change real quick.” Jesper indicated his Authority uniform as he placed his hand on a screen on the door. The screen beeped and the door slid open. S followed him through the door into a small living room and beyond that to a small balcony twenty stories up looking out over the city. On the right she could see an open kitchen and dining area and to her left were two doors that she assumed led to the bedroom and bathroom. Jesper gestured to the couch and she sat as he disappeared into the one of the doors to the left.

“So are you shipping out on any assignments soon?” S called, though thanks to C she already knew the answer.

“Nope, got some time off,” Jesper yelled back cheerfully. S looked at her watch and tapped her foot looking around. Jesper returned to the living room, now wearing in a more relaxed outfit.

“All right, I know of a good coffee shop down the street. Do you want to go there?”

“Uh, yeah,” S glanced at her watch again, but didn’t get off the couch. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Great let’s go,” Jesper made a beckoning motion with his arm and S slowly stood and walked toward him. He looked confused at her lagging, but headed for the door. S followed, but kept walking like her feet were stuck in mud. She looked around her and spotted a ornate square object on the wall.

“What’s that?” She asked pointing at it. Jesper stopped just short of the door and looked.

“Oh that’s an old telephone!” he explained.

“A what?” S asked.

“It’s an antique from Earth. Humans used it to call each other. Like we do with video comms.” He lifted the top curved shape and held it up to his ear. “You can hear out of this end and then talk into this end. I like collecting antiques.” He replaced the piece to its mount on the wall.

“Neat, uh, what else do you have?” S asked. Jesper smiled.

“Oh I can show you a bunch of stuff-” Jesper began walking across the room, but before he could show S anything else T swung onto his balcony from the one above and slid open his glass door. He barely had time to look surprised before she shot him with a stun blast and he fell to the floor with a thud.

“That was getting painful to listen to,” T said.

“It’s not like I wanted to hear about some old comm, but I had to do something to stop him from leaving,” S grumbled, “What took you so long?”

“Sorry, the being that lives upstairs came home,” T shrugged, “I had to hide in a closet until C sent them a fake comm telling them to come to the lobby.” 

“This is why I should have brought my gun,” S huffed.

“Whatever, let’s just get out of here,” T said.

She activated her holo-screen and hit a button. A flurry of tiny bots flew through the open door to the balcony and circled around Jesper. A selperm erupted from each one and surrounded him, connecting with each other to form a perfect oval with Jesper floating inside. 

“M, what’s your ETA?” T asked over her comm.

“30 seconds!” M’s voice said.

“Crap, we gotta go,” T said. She and S ran for to the balcony door and the unconscious body of Jesper followed just behind them.

“And…” C’s voice came over the comms, “Now!” T pushed Jesper over the railing as she and S hoisted themselves over and jumped into thin air. T hit a button on her watch and the selperm around Jesper disappeared and he fell with them. T looked to her right and saw The Tube hurtling toward them. Just as the shuttle passed over all three beings, the selperm that attached to the bottom of the ship was activated, catching them in midair. The hatch above them swung open and C’s face appeared. T pushed Jesper up into the shuttle and then grabbed C’s hand to get pulled inside. C pulled S in after her and slammed the hatch shut.

“We good?” T asked.

“Yup,” C chirped, “I made sure all security cameras are down and traffic was rerouted. And you weren’t in the air long enough for anyone to see you.”

“Fantastic, let’s get out of here,” T said, strapping in next to S.

“Already done,” M said throwing the switch for the thrusters and they rocketed out of the planet’s atmosphere.

~

Inside Art’s cell Jesper lay unconscious on the cot. The cameras in the cell monitored him as always, and when after half an hour Jesper began stirring, C who was watching the footage alerted the rest of the team over the comms. Jesper groaned and rubbed his head. He sat up as the lift door opened and Prism walked into the room.

“Am I… on your ship?” he gaped.

“Congratulations, you have been upgraded to criminal and hence get to see the inside of Art,” T quipped, “Well, the cell at least.”

“Criminal?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m curious Jesper,” S said, “How much does Infinity pay you for each prisoner? Or is one flat fee and you are just their inside man for anything they need from the Authority.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jesper frowned at her.

“No?” T asked. She walked over to the control panel outside the cell and push a button. The inner door for the airlock opened.

“You’re going to send me into space?” Jesper taunted, “You won’t be able to get any answers from me then.”

“You’re either useless and if so then I let you get sucked into space then no real loss or you’re the self-preserving bastard we think you are, and you’ll talk,” T warned.

“You wouldn’t let an innocent being get sucked into space,” Jesper said, eyes narrowing.

“You’re not innocent, we know you’re not, so you can either talk or die,” T said, “Now I’m getting bored.” She hit another button that M had installed when she had to rewire the cell’s panel and a selperm wall formed between the team and the cell. T stared down Jesper. Jesper turned to S.

“You’d let her do this?” he asked.

“I’m not the boss of her,” S shrugged.

“Last chance,” T said. Jesper looked to both M and C whose faces were set in a unreadable expression.

“If my life really means that little to you, why not just shoot me?” Jesper growled. T smirked.

“Leaves marks,” she said simply, “But if you really want me to.” She pulled her gun out from her belt and reached through the selperm to point it directly at his forehead.

“No! Okay, fine!” Jesper exclaimed, “To answer your question, S, they don’t pay me enough to die for them.” T pulled her gun back through the selperm and holstered it. Jesper stared at her for a moment. “Are you going to close the door?” T raised her eyebrows.

“Depends on what you have to tell us.”

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

“Everything,” S said.

Jesper launched into telling the women how when he has a few rare or interesting beings in his ship’s holding cells, he contacts Infinity. Occasionally the company will send request for being types and if Jesper can find one in the Authority system, he will doctor records to get them transferred to his ship. Once Infinity has been contacted, a being named Blusha arranges a rendezvous point and comes aboard in the guise of a doctor needed to examine, beings hurt in the process of arrest. If Blush wants any of them, Authority gets told they need to be taken to a hospital due to their “injuries” and Jesper gets paid 20,000 dal for each. He doctors more records to make it look like after the fake hospital stay the prisoners are successfully transferred to different prisons.

“And that’s it, that’s all I know,” he concluded.

“What does this Blusha do with them?” T asked.

“I have no idea,” Jesper said, “Like I said, that’s all I know.”

“So Martor, and Tyker-?” M began.

“And Elitha?” C interjected.

“Yeah, Blusha took all of them,” Jesper nodded.

“Okay, well you are going to comm Blusha and let them know that you have some beings to look at,” T instructed.

“It doesn’t work like that,” Jesper shook his head, “It’s a secure signal, I can only comm them from my ship. I’m on leave right now and my ship is in for maintenance.”

“Do you have the contact code with you?” C asked.

“It’s on my watch-” Jesper lifted his arm to find that his watch was gone. He looked up and saw M holding it up.

“It’s on there,” Jesper nodded.

“Great, I’ll find Blusha and will reroute the signal to make it look like it’s coming from your ship, and you’ll set up a meeting.” C took the watch from M.

“How can you do that?” Jesper asked. C gave him a look of contempt and began examining the watch.

“Oh right, Prism,” he nodded. The team turned back to the lift. “Hey, wait!” They turned back. “The door?” He pointed to the still open inner hull door. T sighed and hit a button on the control panel. The selperm barrier disappeared and the door slid shut as the team climbed onto the lift.

~

A few hours later the lift door slid open and C walked into the common area. M and T were sitting on one of the couches while S slumped in her armchair. They all had tried to find something to do or talk about while C worked, but they ended up just sitting quietly and waiting. They all looked up as she entered the room.

“Did you find them?” S asked.

“Sort of. Wasn’t easy, but I was able to track Blusha’s location,” C nodded.

“What do you mean sort of?” M asked.

“Well that’s the thing,” C sighed. She opened her holo-screen and threw the contents onto the large screen in the room. A map appeared with a blinking light on it. “This was about an hour ago. I tracked Blusha through the contact information on Jesper’s watch which turned out to be a ship specific contact, not a holowatch.”

“So that’s Blusha’s ship?” T asked and C nodded.

“Now watch,” C pointed at the screen. They all watched the tiny dot blink on and off for a few seconds before it blinked off and didn’t come back.

“Oh!” S asked standing up and taking a step toward the screen.

“Where’d he go?” T asked.

“It’s a dead zone,” M said.

“Exactly,” C agreed, “I studied the area and there’s no signal going in or out.”

“So what do we think?” T exchanged glances with the others, “Infinity’s lab?”

“Finding a dead zone is rare, but they aren’t that uncommon,” S said, “Anyone can create one if they are savvy enough. It might be nothing.”

“That’s true,” C said, “And that’s what I figured, I mean Blusha doesn’t exactly seem to be on the straight and narrow so they probably have a couple of dead zones scattered throughout the galaxy. They probably use them as their own little hiding spots while trafficking beings or who knows what else.”

“Kinda sounds like there’s a ‘but’ coming,” M prompted her.

“But… this is the biggest dead zone I’ve ever come across,” C hit a button on her holo-screen and the map zoomed out and a spherical grid of red dots covered the map.

“Gee, that looks kinda of space station sized,” T monotoned.

“So yeah, I think it’s the lab,” C told them.

“Great, let’s go,” M said.

“Wait a minute,” S said. “We don’t know if this is a space station, and even if we did, we have no idea what it looks like. Not to mention, what do you expect to do? Show up and knock on the door? We wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them.” 

“It’s a dead zone, no one else would be going there besides their own ships and Infinity is familiar with us. They know our ships. They know what we look like,” T added to S’s list of problems.

“If we can get inside to dead zone, I can try hacking their systems,” C retaliated.

“Try? Really?” T argued, “We have no idea what’s even inside the dead zone, that space station could fill the entire thing. They could see us coming far before we can get inside it.”

“There’s no way the station is that size,” M said pointing at the screen, “That thing is huge, it’s practically a moon.”

“It’s still not small enough that we wouldn’t go unnoticed,” S crossed her arms.

“I can turn on our own cloaking. They wouldn’t detect us coming. Someone would have to be looking out a window to see us and if we approached from below that would be less likely,” C appealed.

“Once again, we have no idea what this place looks like,” T gestured to the screen, “We don’t know where their blind spots are!” She was starting to get heated. “I am the tactical officer on this team and I telling you there there are way too many unknown variables in this. You don’t attack an enemy you can’t see, especially when they know you! You can’t win!”

“We can disguise ourselves,” C suggested, “I know we don’t use it a lot because beings don’t know who we are, but Art is programmed to provide disguises.”

“And we can paint The Tube,” M added.

“I can’t believe we are discussing this!” S snapped, “In any other situation with this many holes, we would take more time to investigate and actually form a good plan. Why are you pushing this?”

“Elitha!” T spat the name like an accusation. C glared at both T and S. The team had unconsciously drifted together and apart simultaneously. T and S stood closer to each other while C and M had done the same. Somehow both pairs ended up on either side of the common area, taking obvious sides in the argument.

“You know what?” C’s eyes flashed in anger, “Yes, it is because of her. It’s because of Martor and Rebin and everyone else in there; because they got sold into an experiment for no other reason than they got arrested by the wrong people!” C turned slightly to face T head on. “T, you jumped out of a building because an Authority officer you knew for a day died. You beat someone up to get an antidote for M and I because we were dying! I can’t believe you aren’t on board with this!”

“Yeah, I did those things, but not only did we have more information on what we were fighting, but I also learned from my mistakes! It was reckless and so is this!” T defended herself.

“So you’re telling me if it was M in that station you wouldn’t go charging in there?” C attacked. T’s jaw dropped. She glanced at M who looked away so as to not meet her gaze. T’s gaze returned to C, but she didn’t say anything.

“That’s low,” T’s voice cracked.

“That’s what I thought,” C scowled, “You would and we would follow you because we trust you and we would want to save her too.”

“Please, take me out of this equation,” M said quietly.

“Fine, this is Elitha, I may not charge into places like you, but that’s why we have this team. I can want to save someone just as badly as you would, but I just need you with me to do the charging. Help me!” C finished and gave both T and S a pleading look. T and S exchanged a look, but didn’t respond.

“If that doesn’t convince you,” M broke the silence, “then think about it this way. Some of those beings are there because of us. As of right now we are on the wrong side of this and I don’t know about you, but I can’t live with that fact. I need to make it right.” T put her head in her hands and rubbed her face.  
S tapped her foot, “No.”

“S!” C blurted out, but S held up a hand.

“We don’t know anything about this place,” S said slowly, “So, we compromise. We get close enough where we can monitor traffic coming to and from the dead zone. We confirm, or at least get as close to a confirmation that we can that this dead zone belongs to Infinity.” She looked pointedly at the other women around her ending with M. “You said we could paint The Tube? Fantastic we need to see other ships coming and going to know how best to blend in.” She looked over to C. “You need to see if you can hack into other Infinity space stations to see what security measures they have. See if there is anything special that might be useful. T can go with you to start developing plans around those security measures.” She paused to make sure everyone was really hearing what she said. “Is that something we can all agree to?” M nodded first. T copied her and C, realizing she was outvoted finally jerked her head slightly.

“But we have to agree right now,” S continued, “If we can’t find out enough information or if what we learn makes going in too dangerous, we won’t go.” This time T and M nodded quickly. They all looked to C who they could see by the pained look on her face was struggling to agree to this term. “We can’t help anyone if we’re in danger ourselves,” S told her. C deflated and finally nodded.

“Okay,” S said solemnly, “C direct Art to a place that would be good for observation and then everyone get started with any prep you think needs done.”

“What about Jesper?” M asked.

“We can’t have him warning Infinity about us,” T said, “He gets to come along for the ride.” S nodded in agreement as C spun on her heel and without another word left the room.

~

The lift doors opened and S walked into Art’s hangar. Before her sat The Tube, but it didn’t much look like it anymore. M was supervising bots and they rolled and flew all around the ship spraying paint over it’s hull.

“It’s looking good,” S said, coming to stand level with M.

“Yeah the images C was able to get were great,” M nodded, “You were right, this is a better idea.”

“Thank you,” S nodded.

“How’s everyone else doing?” M asked.

“They’re almost ready,” S said, “Just getting changed. Speaking of which, you should head up to do the same.” That’s when M finally shifted her gaze from The Tube over to S and had to do a double take. Her pink hair was replaced with black and pink eyes were changed to green. She was wearing simple dark slacks and a long sleeve dark shirt, so as not to draw attention to herself.

“Whoa! I barely recognize you!” M said, mouth agape.

“This is nothing, you should go see the others,” S grinned, “I’ll keep an eye on things down here.” M climbed into the lift and directed it to the common area. When the lift doors opened she saw two beings standing in the middle of the room.

“Oh wow,” M walked toward them with a look of amazement. A woman looked over and grinned at her before M could recognize her as T. Her long blue hair was now a brilliant shade of red and the blue lines on her arms had been covered by a long sleeve shirt similar to the one S was wearing.

“What do you think?” T asked.

“You look good with red hair,” M beamed.

“Oh yeah?” T walked over to M and played with the hair by pulling a good portion in front of her shoulder. “Better than the blue?”

“No way,” M said and leaned in to give T a kiss.

“Okay, okay, we get it, you’re adorable,” said the other woman who must be C, “M, I have your disguise over here.” M walked over to her. C’s disguise was much more elaborate than her team members. Her blue-green skin was completely changed to a soft pink; and silver hair had been transformed to a shorter hot pink. The double tipped ears were hard to hide, but there was some sort of prosthetic on them to make them look like they only had a single point.

“You look awesome too,” M told her, “Are you a guy?”

“Thank you, and yes, male presenting, ” C said, “I figured four obvious women unexpectedly showing up might give us away.” She pointed at a short blonde wig on the table, “That’s yours and we’re giving you some purple eyes too, so there’s some drops there as well. The pigment will temporarily dye the color. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt,” C added seeing the apprehensive look on M’s face.

“Good to know,” M assented, “I’m not sure if I can put drops in my own eyes though.”

“I’ll help you,” T walked over to grab the little bottle off the table.

“Great,” C said, “You’ve got some clothes there too. When you two are ready just come on down and we’ll set off.”

“You said like we’re going on a leisurely little shuttle ride,” T scoffed.

“Okay, how’s this: when you two are ready come on down, and we’ll go break about fifty different Authority laws,” C raised her eyebrows at T.

“Better,” T quipped and rolling her eyes, C turned to disappear into the lift. M shed her clothes to change into the ones C had laid out for her.

“You think this will work?” M asked T.

“I certainly hope so,” T said leaned back onto the edge of the table and crossed her arms, “I still think there’s a lot we don’t know, but C’s right. If it were you in there, I’d probably have blasted my way in before now.” M flashed a smile as she tied her brown hair up and flipped her head upside down to fit the blonde wig on. When she stood straight again, she extended her arms as though to say ‘Ta-da!’

“How’s it look?” 

T reached over and adjusted the wig so it sat smoothly over M’s brown hair, “You’re definitely a brunette.”

“Rude.”

T laughed, “All right, come over here and we’ll get your eyes.” T grabbed M’s hand and pulled her over to one of couches. T sat on one end and patted her lap.

“Put your head here,” she instructed. M laid down on the couch with her head in T’s lap. T smoothed back M’s hair and leaned over her with the bottle.

“Don’t blink,” she told M and the first drop of liquid fell into her left eye. M blinked, she couldn’t help it, but she felt the liquid on her eye. She opened her eyes again and T dropped the second bead of liquid into her right eye. M blinked again and felt the liquid spread in her eye. She kept her eyes closed for moment, then opened them to look up at T.

“Definitely purple,” T observed.

“Really?” M opened the camera on her holo-screen to see her new eye color. “That’s so weird!” T chuckled and smoothed M’s blonde hair back again. M gazed up at T.

“I was really nervous… when we disagreed earlier. I was ready for you to completely shut this idea down so thank you,” M said softly, “And not just about this, but about the name thing and how I’m not very comfortable at expressing myself. I just, haven’t really had that before so I really appreciate it.”

T played lazily with M’s hair, “I don’t want to be responsible for hurting those beings anymore than you do. I didn’t rescuing them, I’m just nervous we don’t know enough to get them out. Or to get us out.” 

“We went into Aruban with just as little information.”

“And barely got out.”

“But we did,” M sat up and softly kissed T, “We can do it again.”

“Where are you?!” S’s impatient voice came over their comms. They both smiled into the kiss before pulling apart and hauling themselves off the couch.

“We’re coming!” T responded and they both entered the lift, and then turned to M, “You’re right. Let’s do this.”

~

“We’re almost there,” C told them, watching her holo-screen. They were all aboard The Tube and had been almost silent on their trip to the dead zone. C had been giving directions to M where most ships entered and exited the area. S and T sat wordlessly in the back prepping different weapons they might need. T had her baton in one boot and a knife in another. Their utility belts may not fit into their disguises, but she was going to bring as many weapons as she could. She also had a gun tucked down the back of her pants and S and C had done the same. Before they left T had given M an extra baton and a knife if she needed it. Otherwise their plan was to pass through unnoticed as much as they could.

“Once we attach to the station I should be able to download a layout and see if there are any good possible holding areas where Elitha and the others might be,” C had told them. She planned on hacking the station once they got inside the dead zone, but if she wasn’t able to access it remotely she was going to use a selperm and connect a hard line into the station. The Tube had been painted a shiny silver and should blend in with the other ships coming and going. They hadn’t seen many ships when they were observing the area, but the ones who came to and from the dead zone were all unmarked and as inconspicuous as possible. The Tube should be able to get close enough to the station to allow C to plug in a hardline from inside the ship without rousing too much suspicion.

“All right we should be in the dead zone in 3… 2…” C said.

“I don’t even see anything,” T said as C ended her count down. The tip of the ship’s nose disappeared and each team member gasped as they passed through a barrier like they had never seen before.

“It’s not just a dead zone,” C whispered.

“It’s like a camouflage shield or something,” S observed. Directly in front of them was a space station none of them had been able to see a few seconds ago.

“How is that even possible?” M asked.

“Infinity has a huge scientific research department,” S told her, mouth agape, staring up at the station, “I have no doubt they have developed things we have never even heard of before.”

“There’s a dock!” C said, pointing to the side of the station. M directed the shuttle towards a long arm of the station. T and S were now standing and hovering over the two front seats scanning the space around the ship. There were a few ships docked on a long extended part of the ship, but most of the spots were empty. There was one ship that looked as though it was patrolling around the station, but it hadn’t paid them any mind.

“Have you been able to connect to their network?” S over her shoulder. C, who was rapidly tapping on her holo-screen, didn’t answer.

“C?” S asked.

“Wait,” C said without looking away from the screen.

“We’re getting closer,” M warned. S and T looked down to C and her holo-screen, though they didn’t understand any of the symbols flashing across the screen.

“Dammit!” C uttered and sprang out of her seat. S and T parted for her as she ran to the door and flipped a switch on its side. “Get as close as you can.”

M pulled up to the dock and very carefully so The Tube’s hull lightly kissed the outside of the space station. C hit the button to open the door. It slid open and a selperm immediately appeared around the edges of the door, but M had gotten ship close enough that the docking door sat just slightly inside The Tube’s door. C quickly broke open a panel on the door and plugged a small wireless device into the door. The team watched nervously as her fingers danced across her holoscreen and after a moment the space stations dock extended and sealed around The Tube’s door. The selperm around the edge of the door disappeared and C let out a breath and relaxed.

“We good?” M asked and C nodded.

“Do you think they noticed anything?” T asked.

“They shouldn’t have,” C shook her head. She was taking deep breaths as though she had just ran at a sprint. “I couldn’t get into the system, but I was able to get as far as the docking system. Most ships send ahead a code and the dock automatically opens for them. I was able to fake the system into thinking there was a code, but not the actual dock. I think I was able to activate it fast enough that I would just seem like a loading lag so to anyone watching the system it looked like we had the code and are good.”

“Okay, so we’re here,” T said. She say anything else and the team just looked around at each other as though they hadn’t believed they would get this far.. “C, I need a map.”

“Right!” C opened up her holo-screen again. She tapped again for a few minutes and finally said, “Okay I’ve sent it to all your watches just in case, but…” She pulled a 3D hologram of the station out of her screen. “We’re here.” C pointed to the blue light on the hologram. The docking arm stretched out right in the middle of the station. There was a long rectangular center mass with the short ends on the top and bottom of the station. Different arms, none as long as the docking arm stuck out on various areas of the rectangle.

“A lab could be in any of these,” M waved a hand at the arms of the station on the map.

“Look for extra oxygen flow,” S said, “Or extra power. A medical lab will need that.”

“Yeah I’m trying,” C sighed, “It almost looks as though the entire station is a lab.”

“The entire thing?” T groaned.

“Well, like S just said, Infinity works on any number of projects. They could work on all of their most top secret stuff here.”

“Search for heat signatures,” S told her and C gave her a sardonic look.

“It’s a space station,” C said, “There will be heat signatures everywhere.”

“Just… it’s something we haven’t tried,” S said, agitated. C shrugged and hit a button. Hundreds of red dots illuminated in the hologram.

“Whoa,” M said, “That’s a lot.”

“Yeah, but that will be helpful getting around,” T pointed at less busy areas of the map, “We can make sure we are seen less by going through these less populated areas.”

“There!” S cried out and pointed to some dots in an arm a few levels up, “They are all in a straight line and not moving.”

“It could be off duty security team in barracks,” T suggested.

“Hold on,” C said. She accessed the security footage on her holo-screen, “It doesn’t look like there is surveillance inside that room, but there is a camera above the door. It isn’t marked and there is a pretty heavy security panel on it.”

“So probably not barracks,” M said.

“Okay, let’s head up,” T said, “C direct us using the least populated areas and stairs rather than lifts. C nodded.

“Stay alert and aware of your surroundings, but try not to look like you’ve never been here before. Pretend like you’re just walking around Art-”

“But like Art when a bunch of bots are trying to kill us?” M asked with a smirk.

“Exactly,” T nodded, “If you see any sort of room with clothing in it, we could use that to possibly fit in a bit more. You got cameras covered?” She pointed at C.

“Yup, just gained access,” C confirmed, “I’ll loop specific ones we’re going to pass as go through.”

“Fantastic. All right, ready?” The rest of the team nodded and T did the same to C, who opened the dock’s door leading to the station. T walked through and looked around. They were near the outer end of the docking arm and no one else was docked next to them. Through the windows in the dock door across from them they could see no one was docked there either. T turned left and lead the way down the hallway into the station. The team followed in a close, but staggered group. C was staring at her holo-screen.

“When we get to the end of this hallway take a right. No one is over there and it looks like there is a staircase in the corner of the main hub.” T nodded and continued ahead confidently, her red hair gently blown back by the air moving around her as she walked. When they reached the end of the hall she glanced to the left before turning right. They were halfway down the hall when S stopped.

“Hey,” she said softly to get their attention. The rest of the team turned to look at her and found she was pointing at a door to her right labelled, ‘Uniform Storage.’

“Nice,” T whispered. She placed a hand on C’s arm and gave her a questioning look. C opened a new window on her holo-screen.

“It’s not armed,” C told her. S opened the door and the team piled into the small room. All around the walls hung blueish gray pants and jackets with an large silver ‘I’ on the left breast. They each found one that fit and quickly changed and hid their clothes in a back corner of the closet. T, S, and C stowed their guns in the back of their new attire. Before they exited T turned to C.

“Clear?” she asked. C checked her holo-screen and nodded. They departed from the closet and continued to where C said they would find stairs. Two separate beings passed by them, wearing the same uniform. One was engrossed in their holo-screen and didn’t pay attention to them, but the other gave a smile smile and nod as they passed. The team returned it and continued on. When they reached the corner of the station C directed them through a doorway and the team found themselves on a long flight of stairs that stretch far above and below them.

“How many floors?” T asked.

“Uh, 12,” C said. T groaned and they started climbing. They didn’t encounter anyone on their way up and when they finally reached their destination C had them wait as a being walked down the hall on the other side of the door and disappear around a corner. T quietly opened the door and they entered the hallway. C told them to go straight and halfway down they hallway they found a corner that C instructed they needed to turn down. They entered an arm of the station where they had seen the room with the dots lined up. As they got closer to the room the team could feel the tension build around them. They finally reached a door on their right a third of the way down the arm.

“Here,” C whispered and walked over to the door. “Block me.” T and M immediately stood in front of her with the backs to her just in case anyone walked near them they wouldn’t be able to see exactly was she was doing. S stayed in the middle of the hall and walked a little ways back to the center of the station just to have a better view of anyone coming unexpectedly.  
C broke open the control panel next to the door and inserted another little device into a plug on the side of the panel. She quickly connected to it wirelessly and had the door open in seconds. The team quickly slipped into the room and she closed the door behind them. The room was dark and each of the team members pulled their flashlights out of their belts. They turned them on and let go of the light so it hovered next to their head. C was still working on her holo-screen and as the others moved into the room. A moment later overhead lights flared to life, illuminating the room.

“Please tell me that was you,” M said to C.

“Happy to help,” C responded cheerily. The team sighed and put away their flashlights. Now they could finally look around the room. It was a narrow space that stretched far down the arm of the station. All along the wall opposite them sat statis tanks, large metal cylinders sat on their end and tilted slightly back into the wall with a glass front. Some of the tanks were empty, but a few were filled with a green colored liquid that suspended a being inside.

“Oh my-,” M whispered and they all slowly walked over to the unconscious being. They weren’t any of the beings the team was looking for. They were covered in multi-colored scales and had webbed hands and feet.

“Are they dead?” C asked.

“No, there’s vital signs,” S said pointing to a screen on the side of the tank. “The liquid is providing nutrients and oxygen so they can keep the beings in good condition.” S looked down the line of tanks to the several other ones that were occupied. “C, why don’t you scan these beings and check to make sure they are missing persons. It could very well be they donated their bodies to science in the event of a coma or even volunteered to be a part of an experiment.”

“Really, you think they volunteered for this?” T asked scornfully.

“I’m not accusing Infinity of taking beings without concrete evidence,” S replied. “Come on, let’s look to see if we can recognize anyone.” C held her screen up to the face of the first being as the others began walking past the three empty tanks to the next inhabited tank. Before they could reach it, an alarm blared through the room and the lights flashed red.

“Out, now!” T yelled and they ran back to the door. 

“Wait!” C called.

“N!” S screamed, but C ignored her. She ran over to a panel of computers set into a wall and opened up the side. M and S were already at the door. “C, open the door! S turned to T, looking frantic, “What is she doing?”

“Little fail safe we worked out,” T explained, but she looked antsy. C still ignored them and pulled something from her pocket and inserted it into the side of the computer. She closed the panel back up and ran to catch up with them.

C had it open before she even reached it. They ran out into the hallway and turned back to the center of the station. They could hear the alarm still echoing through the hall and the lights were flashing red her as well. They rounded the corner back to the staircase, but their path was blocked by a armoured security team, all pointing guns in their direction. T looked behind them and saw another team approaching from the other side. 

T pulled out her gun as S and C did the same. They pressed to the side of the wall just inside the hallway they had just ran out of and began shooting at the security teams. T was shooting at the team to the left with M behind her, who had pulled knife out of her boot. S and C were taking turns covering the team to the right. The teams fired back at them as the commanders called out directions that Prism couldn’t hear over the gunfire. After a few minutes of no one gaining any ground, the commander of the left team threw something in their direction.

“Get back!” T yelled as a metal object the size of her fist landed at the opening of the hallway. She and the rest of the team ran further into the arm as the little object exploded. The hallway filled with a bright light momentarily and released dense clouds of smoke.

“It’s just a smoke bomb!” T coughed, “They’ll be coming through!” T pulled out her baton and extended it with a flick of her wrist. Nothing moved for a moment and T’s ears rang from the explosion. All she could hear was her own breathing. The Infinity security came bursting through the smoke filling the hall and T, S, and C shot and took down the first wave. The hallway inside the arm was smaller than the one in the center so they had some advantage. More security came through the smoke stepping over the bodies of their fellows, shooting into the hallway. The smoke was still spitting out of the bomb and filling more of the hallway allowing T and the rest of Prism to disappear into it just as well as the Infinity beings.

“Get down and stay in the smoke. Attack them from below,” T quieted called into the comms. She hunched over and she felt M duck behind her. T pushed off her toe and ran forward quickly before pulling into a slide and driving into the front security officer. They cried out as they fell and T shot them. Around her other beings were falling as Prism was shooting from behind T. With a sweeping kick, T brought down three other officers and quickly shot them as they tried to regain footing. Not seeing her in the smoke, a few officers ran past her and T heard cries of pain and thuds as beings hit the floor, though none of the cries sounded like her team members. It was obvious that Infinity thought the flash bomb would affect Prism’s eyesight and hearing. She hoped the others were just as unaffected as she was, but didn’t have too much time to think about that before more officers came into the hallway.

She stood and with the baton and the gun made her way through the smoke hitting and shooting anyone she could see. From behind her she heard a shout of pain that could be one of her team members or a female officer, but she would find out once the danger wasn’t so imminent. She hoped she could at least get enough of a break so they could all run to the staircase before more officers came as back up. She ducked low again and kicked sideways at an officer’s knee and was able to pop out the knee cap. The officer screamed and fell as she shot them and rolled away. She was able to keep the officers from guessing where she was by attacking one and then moving across the room to take down another.

She had almost reached the front of the hallway. She could see the flash bomb wasn’t emitting smoke anymore which meant she didn’t have it as cover for much longer. Behind her she could hear some beings fighting which meant as least one of her team members was still going. She saw some boots appear to her left. T swung her baton into the shins attached to them and the being called out in pain. The officer shot blindly at the floor and barely missed T’s head. 

T launched herself forward into the being and knocked them off their feet. She aimed her gun at their chest when behind her she heard a cry that unmistakably came from M. It caused her to hesitate for half a second which is all the officer needed to throw a right hook into the side of T’s head. The force threw T off the being and she rolled onto the floor. Someone behind her grabbed her by head hair and pulled her backwards. T still had her gun. She reached behind her and shot whoever had a hold on her. She fell to the floor with them, but quickly jumped back up. Turning back to the hallway, she saw the officer who had punched her aim their gun. They shot T in the chest and the world went black as T fell to the floor.

~

When T woke up she coughed and took a deep, gasping breath. She felt like she had been punched in the chest. She could feel a cool metal floor beneath her back and slowly opened her eyes to look at her surroundings. She wasn’t bound, and she wasn’t in a cell, but her weapons and comm were gone. The room around her looked like an office. The walls were a gleaming white. There was large, but simple glass desk on one end of the room with a tall backed chair behind it. There were plush chairs set in front of the desk and everything was sitting on cushy rug. Behind the desk were a dozen screens and three of them each showed a cell where T could see M, S, and C, being held separately. She rolled over and pushed herself up, though the pressure caused pain to shoot through her chest but she rushed over to the screens to get a closer look.

They had been stripped of their disguises and looked like themselves again. M was pacing anxiously while S was sitting in a corner leaning back into the wall. T knew she was trying to work out a plan to escape. C, though, was unconscious. T could see a bloody wound on her head and she knew if it wasn’t treated soon, it could cause serious damage. One more screen was on and T could see herself, blue hair restored from the bright red. She looked up in the direction of the camera and then turned to look behind her at the rest of the room. She hadn’t noticed before, but there was no one else in the room with her. Looking back to the screens, she wondered why the others were in cells, but she was in this office. She turned to scan the room again and noticed the door. She scrambled over to it, but, as expected, it didn’t open. Instead, she studied the walls next to it hoping to find a button or some kind of control panel she could try to pry open, but there was nothing. 

She heard a whooshing sound behind her and spun around to see a wall to her left had opened up to reveal a small hallway. Through it came two armoured security guards, a being with yellow skin and eyes sitting atop two antennae in a white lab coat, and Maion. T gaped at her as the dignified woman took the seat behind the desk. The two guards flanked her on either side. The being in the white lab coat sat in one of the plush chairs in front of the desk. No one of them had said anything or even glanced at her as they entered and T subtly pinched her leg to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. The pinch hurt so definitely not dreaming. Maion finally looked up at her.

“Take a seat,” the woman nodded to the empty chair. T’s forehead wrinkled in confusion and she didn’t move.

“Um, no,” T responded sardonically.

“We have a lot to discuss and I’m sure you’re sore from the altercation earlier,” Maion gestured at the chair. T just widened her stance and crossed her arms over her chest as she squared her shoulders. Her chest ached as her arms pushed into it.

“I’m good,” T told her stoically. Maion gave her a calculated look, but finally sighed and opened her holo-screen watch. She turned back to the screens on the wall and hit a button on her holo-screen. Surveillance footage of the attack from earlier appeared on a screen. The other footage of her team continued playing next to it.

“I will say, I’m surprised at how well you did despite how easily your team jumped at our bait,” Maion said watching the screen, “Though I do hire your team for a reason. You are the best.”

“Bait?” T spat, staring at the fins on the back of Maion’s head, “This was a trap?”

“Yes, after what happened on Oxfrimon we knew it would only be a matter of time before you discovered your team was our supply of beings. So we needed to get you here without revealing our location through unsecured comm channels. And of course, Jesper is the easiest connection. I am impressed with how you picked him up though. Like I said, you are the best,” Maion said calmly as she turned back to stare at T.

“How long?” T asked, anger building in her chest.

“How long, what?” Maion asked, “You need to be more specific.”

“How long have you been leading us on? My team! You’ve been using us! How long?” T roared as she stormed across the room and slammed a her hand onto the glass desk. A crack appeared where her hand hit and the security officers armed their guns and aimed them at T. T, breathing heavily, ignored them and glared at Maion.

“Several months now, we only took the ones that wouldn’t be missed.”

“So you knew we were coming the entire time,” T led Maion on.

“Yes,” Maion nodded, “You did very well though, had my security not been on high alert to expect you, we might not have noticed you were here until much later.” Maion waved a hand at the officers and they finally lowered, but didn’t disarm their guns. T turned and walked away from the desk, rubbing her face in her hands. She knew she shouldn’t turn her back on an enemy, but it didn’t feel like any of her training mattered now. Nothing any of them did mattered. All the time they spent studied the ships coming and going, painting The Tube, and prepping for this hadn’t even mattered.

“Why?” T asked, still with her back to Maion. Maion didn’t respond for a moment.

“Well I feel like that would be obvious. We couldn’t have you discovering what we do here,” Maion said with a confused tone.

“No, I mean,” T turned back to the beings, “Why are you doing all of this?” She gestured to the station around her. “Why we you kidnapping beings? What do want with that portal on Oxfrimon?” Maion stared at T again appraisingly as though decided how much she wanted to reveal.

“We wanted the portal because we are trying to develop a portal of our own,” Maion revealed, “One only for us where we can control the destination. We needed to study the one on the moon to work out some kinks. If we had been able to work those out it would have made this facilities’ other use immaterial, but unfortunately your team destroyed it.”

“Why do you want a portal? An illegal portal by the way. For what?” T was becoming so interested in Maion’s story that her anger was dying. Once again, Maion didn’t respond immediately.

“That is classified,” Maion said in an icy voice and T knew not to push it.

“The other use... what’s the other use of this place?” T asked. Maion sighed.

“So far our artificial portals are unstable,” Maion sighed, “We are having trouble finding beings who can survive traveling through.”

“So what you’re throwing them in? Seeing if they come out the other side?”

“Don’t be so crude,” Maion sighed as though a teacher to a student.

“So…. tests?,” T concluded.

“We need to find beings who are strong enough to withstand it,” Maion nodded.

“You realize that no matter how strong a being is, an unstable portal will still rip them to shreds,” T snapped.

“Do not lecture me on the dangers of portals,” Maion hissed back. She and T glared at each other the tension thick between them. Maion finally broke her gaze.

“Besides, I hear you have first hand knowledge of that,” Maion lashed out.

“How do you know that?” T asked.

“We had one of your former team members with us,” Maion said, “She unknowingly revealed some information on your team. She liked to talk about you all… a lot.”

“Elitha,” T breathed, “Had?”

“She unfortunately didn’t make it,” Maion folded her hands together and looked down at them.

“And you’re okay with that,” T’s felt her anger come alive again. “Kidnapping beings and just letting them die.”

“No,” Maion flashed and took T by surprise. “I am not comfortable with the beings dying while in our care, but there is a percentage that we can allow to reach our goal.”

“A percentage?!” T yelled.

“Any company or government has this!” Maion finally stood and T could see she had hit a nerve. “You come from a warring society, you should be able to understand! How many beings do you think die in drug tests or wars? How many beings had to die before portals were finally shut down? No, I do not want them to die, but I work to prevent it so we can reach our goal!”

“Which is what again?” T advanced on the desk and the officers aimed their guns at her again.

“This portal will-” Maion was almost screaming, but stopped herself. She took a breath and pulled herself back into her chair. She didn’t say anything as she smoothed the front of her business suit. She finally looked back at T. “You almost got me.”

“Tried,” T sniffed and smirked.

“It is not my intention that these beings die while in our custody. We choose them selectively. We don’t take innocent beings from their lives. These are beings who are headed to prison or terrible lives in slavery. By taking them we are giving them a chance to survive.”

“Yeah, but they don’t do they?” T asked sardonically.

“Someday, someone will,” Maion said calmly. No one said anything for a moment until T heard someone behind her clear their throat. She turned and once again saw the being in the lab coat. She had completely forgotten about them during her heated discussion.

“Right,” Maion nodded, “And that brings us to why you are here.”

“Excuse me?” T snarled.

“As I said Elitha revealed information to us during her time with us and from that and studying you during your performance on Oxifrimon and earlier upstairs that you would be a good fit for what we are trying to do,” Maion said evenly as though trying to sell her a new pair of shoes.

“You want to run tests on me?” T shouted, “Are you serious? No way! What makes you think I would agree to that?” Maion gave T a measured look and then turned her chair around to look at the screens. T followed her gaze and once again saw her team in their holding cells and gasped.

“If you agree to this we will gladly release them,” Maion said, “If not, we will have no choice, but to take you by force and to kill them on the spot.”   
T stared at Maion in shock, “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you just take me and kill them?”

“If the entirety of Prism disappeared someone could come looking for you and we would have another problem on our hands,” Maion explained.

“So… so you have me! Why not just take me and let them go? Why even threaten them or make this deal with me?” T asked. She tried to make her voice as even as possible, but she could feel her nerves threaten to make her tone waver. Maion sighed and leaned forward on the desk, folding her hands again.

“If we just take you, do you have any doubt that your team would try and rescue you?” Maion raised her eyebrows. T shook her head. “Exactly, they would show up here again trying to get you back. We will already have to move the station after this incident and I would like not to have to move it twice.”

“So,” T was trying to figure out Maion’s plan as quickly as she could, “you can’t kill them, and they can’t know that you took me.”

“Exactly,” Maion nodded.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” T asked.

“You’re going to die,” Maion smirked.

~

M paced back and forth her the little cell. An electrified barrier prevented her from seeing anything past a few feet down the hall on either side of her, but she assumed that the rest of the team were in cells alongside her. Her head still pounded from where one of the security officers had delivered the blow that knocked her out. She had heard C scream in the smoke, but she wasn’t sure if anything had happened to S and T.

No one had walked by, let alone come to talk to them. It was only a matter of time before someone came to get them, right? She didn’t know if Infinity would want to talk to them or if they would just kill them. But then, if they had wanted to kill Prism, why had they been stuck in these cells. Maybe they would experiment on them like they were doing with the others. She was not going to let that happen.

From somewhere to her left M heard a clang of metal on metal. She rushed over to the barrier, but it still prevented her from seeing where the noise had come from. She heard a heavy thud and then a voice cry out in pain. A few more thuds followed and the cries of pain died off. M anxiously waited for the next sound, but silence hung in the air.  
Then running footsteps drew closer and she heard another thud followed by a robotic voice, “Deactivated.” The running drew even closer and now M could see a shadow on the wall to her left. Another thud. “Deactivated.” The shadow moved toward her and T appeared.

“What the hell?” M exclaimed.

“Nice to see you too,” T joked and hit a button on the wall next to M’s cell.

“Deactivated,” the robotic voice said again and the electric barrier disappeared. M sprang to hug T who gave her a quick hug back.

“You weren’t captured?” M asked pulling away.

“Nah, I got away in the smoke and hid in some air vents,” T said, “I saw you three get taken and waited until it was safe to come get you. That didn’t happen, so I just set a fire at the other end of the station. They’re a little busy right now, but we’ve gotta go.” T and M began walking the way T came from, past an empty cell, and on to another where S was bent over C, who was lying unconscious. She was examining a bleeding wound on C’s head.

“Oh no,” M said.

“She okay?” T asked.

“I mean it’s been an hour and she’s still unconscious. I need to get her back to Art,” S said. “Help me lift her.” T walked over and grabbed C under her shoulders and lifted her off the floor. S used her right arm to grab C’s left arm. Then she bent over and grabbed with her free arm grabbed C’s left leg. T helped maneuver C’s body as S stood up until C was safely settled onto S’s shoulders.

“You good?” T asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got her,” S said as she did some minor readjustments to better her grip.

“Okay, let’s go,” T said. She pulled her gun out and continued past C’s cell. M found themselves in a control room. An unconscious security officer lay on the floor next to a ceiling tile putting visuals to the sounds she had heard earlier. T opened the door and looked left and right.

“Okay, no one’s out there, I’ll guard from the rear, go to the left there’s a stairwell at the end of the hall,” T ordered and M ran out into the hall with S following as quickly as she could with C. T was the last out still scanning the area as she ran.

“Hey!” Someone yelled from behind them, but T turned and shot them before they could alert anyone else. They reached the staircase and M rushed inside.

“Down five floors!” T called as she shot someone down the connecting hallway. M hurtled down the stairs. Thinking it might be more difficult for S to carry C down the stairs M turned around to see if she could help, but S was right behind her.

“Keep going!” S called and T jumped an entire flight of stairs to catch up. They ran as fast as they could down the five flights. T told M to wait and ran to the front of the group to be first at the door. She ran into the hallway and shot someone M couldn’t see.

“Come on! Go! The shuttle is to the left!” T waved M forward and she ran into the hallway and to the left. She saw another unconscious being down the hall. She and S turned left and ran into the docking arm with T close behind. The shuttle was close to the end and it felt like it was miles away. About halfway down, T cried out and M looked back. Security officers were at the mouth of the docking arm shooting after them. T had a burn mark on the side of her leg. Just a graze, but it had made her fall over. M and S ducked into an alcove that held a docking door.

“No keep going, and get the ship ready!” T called, “I’ll hold them off.” She ducked into the alcove across from them and began shooting back. With her cover, M and S were able to continue to the ship. Running in slight zig-zag patterns so they weren’t easy targets. They finally made it back to The Tube and S rushed in. M looked back and saw T had moved to a closer alcove, but the officers were still advancing. M rushed onto the ship and saw S had pulled down a cot attached to the wall and laid C on it. M started the engines and a red light on the dash lit up.

“S, we’re still connected to the station!” M called back.

“Well then disconnect us!” S said shortly, starting to work on C’s wounds. They could still hear shots being fired back in the station.

“I would, but that would be easier if we hadn’t hacked into the station so we could dock!” M cried.

“Shit!,” S said, “This is a little brutal, but we don’t have much choice.” She pulled a spray bottle out of her medical bag and sprayed it in C’s face. C sat up suddenly with a harsh gasp. “C, I’m so sorry, but we need you to send a code for us to disconnect from the station!” S said quickly, grabbing C’s shoulders to steady her.

“What?” C said, putting a hand to her head and groaning when she pulled it back and saw the blood.

“We were attacked, you were hurt. We’re being attacked again and you need to disconnect us from the station!” M gripped the edge of the cot. C gave her a groggy look, but nodded heavily and opened her holo-screen. M looked out the door and saw T had reached the alcove across from them.

“We ready?” T hollered over the gunfire.

“Almost!” M shouted back and looked back to C. She was tapping on her holo-screen, though not as quickly as she normally did. Suddenly a shot hits the control panel next to the door on station and it slams shut.

“No!” M called and ran to the little window set into the door. “C, open it!”

“I didn’t do that,” C said groggily in a small voice.

“Can you open it?” S asked as she ran over to look through the window with M.

“It’s broken,” C in an even smaller voice if possible.

~

Another plasma shot flew past T’s head and she ducked into the alcove to avoid it. She gave the closed dock door a distressed look as her heart pounded against her ribs. T could see M screaming through the window, the sound was muffled. The control panel next to the door sparked and fizzled, but she was so close. She had to try. She shot at the officers one more time and then launched herself across the hall toward the panel.

She felt the shot before she really realized what happened. A deep burn that started in her stomach and radiated up and down her right side. It didn’t hurt, of course it didn’t, but it stopped her in midair. She slammed into the floor and looked down. There was a burn mark on her stomach and blue blood covered her right side. She covered the wound with her hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She began to panic now, realizing she might not get out of this like she thought. The door was busted and now they’d shot her. They really weren’t going to let her escape.

T looked to her left, back up to the window and saw M’s face, still screaming and banging on the door. T’s breaths were coming in quick gasps now, but with a strained push managed to launch herself up to the window.

“Hey!” She called to M behind the metal door, “You’ve got to get us out, okay? You said we’d get out of this... all of us.”

“We’re trying! C can’t open the door!”

More shots hit the wall just behind T and she flinched, “No listen, you get out, and then get the rest of us out. I told you I’d never manipulate you, remember?”

“What?” M called. 

“Just get out.” T’s face twisted from terrified to anguish to fury as she turned back down the hallway. Aiming her gun again, she pelted the security team with plasma shots. She saw officers fall and stop moving. She was going to fight until the very last second she had.

A selperm appeared in the hallway between her and the officers. She knew M couldn’t see it from that angle. They still shot through it, but the shots were consistently landing around her. Close enough, to look real, but not enough to actually hit her. She finally realized something was happening and she had a brief moment of confusion before one of the officers aimed and hit the control panel for the empty dock to her right. The panel blew sparks everywhere and the airlock doors flew open. She had half a second to grasp what was happening, but didn’t have time to scream before she was sucked out into open space.

~

M couldn’t breathe. She watched as a heavy, windowless, steel door labelled “Emergency Containment Door” slammed down over the open door that T had just disappeared through. Her entire body felt as though it had been covered in ice. Her eyes blurred, but she could still see officers advancing on the door through the little window. Her ears started ringing, but she still heard S’s voice though it sounded muffled.

“C! They are here!” S shouted nervously, but with an edge of encouragement. M watched motionless as two officers pulled open the control panel to try and get in The Tube.

“Okay, we’re good,” C said weakly and laid back down. Something clicked in M’s head, ‘just get out’, and she bolted for the pilot seat. The red light on the dash had been replaced by green. M hit a button that closed the door of The Tube. She rocketed straight up as fast as she could before letting up and hovered above the docking arm. Before she had a chance to search the area around the door T had been ripped through, a blast hit the side of the shuttle catapulting it out of the invisible shield around the station. Once again the area around them just looked like empty space.

“M, we need to go! We need to-” S ran up to the front.

“She could be there! She could be out-” M shouted as she turned the shuttle to go back through the barrier, but another blast hit the ship.

“She’s not there! She’s not! Please M!” S cried out.

“Her tracker!” M gasped remembering the comms had trackers, “She didn’t get captured! She still has hers!” She pulled up her holo-watch and opened the tracking system as The Tube took another blow. Her hopes were dashed though as all four trackers blinked ‘offline’.

“M! C is hurt and I need my lab to help her! T gone! She’s gone! I’m so sorry, but we need to leave!” S pleaded. M looked back to S and saw tears streaming down her face. Every fiber of her being wanted to keep looking for T, but the look on S’s face brought her back to reality. The Tube jolted again and a red light began flashing on the dash. An alarm blared through her ears and she turned back to the dash. She scanned the area in front of them once more where she knew the station sat. It felt as though she was hanging off the edge of a cliff and she just couldn’t let go. The pain and pressure and fear swelled into her chest until she couldn’t handle it anymore. An agonizing scream tore from her as she hit the thrusters and The Tube shot away from Infinity.

~

T tried to grab the sides of the door as she felt herself being torn away from the space station. She immediately felt the air rush out of her lungs. She tried not to gasp for breath. In every safety lecture S had made them sit through, Art had said if you tried to inhale in space it could tear up your lungs so she tried to exhale as she drifted away from the station. She was losing speed after the initial rush and she could feel the weightlessness of her body. She watched as though in slow motion as a steel door descended to cover the open door in the space station. Cold hit every fiber of her being, mixed with a burning sensation she knew was probably her own blood. She was starting to lose concentration and assumed she probably had about ten seconds, before she passed out from lack of oxygen.

She could barely think and every second felt as though it last ages. She watched as The Tube took off and was prompted blasted out of the barrier. She knew the team couldn’t see her anymore, so Infinity could come get her now! Maion had said they would send someone, but she didn’t see any ships though her eyesight had gone fuzzy. The silence enveloped her and was almost the worst part of the experience. She had never heard a quiet like this before and it didn’t feel real. Darkness filled her eyesight she could barely see the station. She could only see her body below her, slowly spinning through the vacuum of space. As she stared down, a small rectangle floated out from inside her pocket. She didn’t even have the capacity to be confused, but she had a fleeting thought of never having seen it before.

As quickly as the thought had crossed her mind, the rectangle burst open and a selperm surrounded her. For the first time in what felt like hours oxygen surrounded her and she gasped desperately sucking in as much as she could. Feeling rushed back to her, and while nothing hurt, everything felt wrong. She felt like she had been turned to glass and if she tried to move more than breathing she would shatter into a million pieces. She still couldn’t string together her thoughts so she just floated inside the selperm trying to fill her lungs. She didn’t even notice the small ship rising up to meet her. She finally realized what was happening when it swallowed her through a hatch in the roof. She stared up through the selperm, hovering above the floor as the hatch shut. 

The life support in the room stabilized the selperm around her disappeared and she fell the last few feet to the floor, landing hard on her back. She still couldn’t move, but heard a door to her right hiss open and several beings entered her frame of vision. One them pulled out a scanner and waved it up and down her body checking vitals and assessing what where her worst injuries. Another was a security officer standing guard behind Maion. She and Maion both knew she couldn’t attack right now, but they also knew it was a visual representation of her new imprisonment. Maion leaned down next to her and smiled. T just stared at her as her body recognized how cold she really was and began shivering.

“That last show of aggression wasn’t an attempt to escape, right? Or to warn your team?” Maion asked derisively. “Because the shuttle is still hovering over my station. I could easily shoot them down.” T couldn’t even move enough to glare at Maion as the doctor covered her body with heated blankets, but she still could barely move. She cracked opened her lips and tried to answer.

“Had to… make it… look… good,” she rasped. Her tongue felt huge in her mouth. The doctor brought a cup to her lips and she had little choice, but to drink. Whatever it was tasted horrible, but her tongue and throat seemed to numb. Her body was calming after it’s excursion into space and she began to feel dull pain in every inch of her body. Her heart still raced so she knew she wouldn’t feel the full range of the damage done.

“And you didn’t tell them anything?” Maion raised an eyebrow.

“Just told… them… to leave...” T grunted.

“Good,” Maion said, “We were watching on the monitors, but I thought you might try pass it along somehow. I don’t know all your team’s secrets.” T closed her eyes and took another deep breath.

“They think… I’m dead,” T hissed.

“Perfect,” Maion nodded and when T opened her eyes she saw her ugly smile. Maion looked down at T’s body and pointed to the wound on her stomach. “Sorry about this, but like I said, we were watching and I wanted to make sure you followed through with our deal. Call it a warning shot.” T snorted softly through her nose. “You may doubt me, but I made sure it wasn’t a bad shot. Plus I slipped you this which I’m sure you were grateful for,” Maion said sternly as she picked up an item off the floor. It was the rectangle that the selperm had burst from, now reformed.  
“You like this? We just developed it. This one though I had to manually activate. Had to wait to make sure your friends didn’t see you floating in it before the door closed.”

“Could have… told me… the plan,” T growled through chattering teeth.

“Like you said, we had to make it look good,” Maion smirked and placed the selperm rectangle inside a pocket in her suit jacket. “Fix her up then get her prepped to begin tests.” Maion stood and turned to a being out of T’s view. “Get the station started on relocation. I want it done quickly and as far from this place as we can get.”

“M’am, the station is shutting down,” a being said.

“Excuse me?” Maion snapped. T looked up at her shocked and confused face from below and couldn’t help, but laugh. Or at least, she tried. She got one snicker out before her chest tightened and she began coughing. 

Maion glared down at her, seething, “What did you do?”

“Little… fail safe… if things… went bad,” T said in between coughs. The doctor once again had her drink something and she was able to breathe somewhat normally again. “Activated when our ship detached from the station. You might want to get everyone out. It’s going to blow in fifteen minutes.” Maion’s gaze snapped to the being T couldn’t see.

“I’m on it,” they said and T heard the door slid open and footsteps running away.

“You gave us time to get beings out,” Maion looked back down to T, “You’re better than me.”

“I know,” T frowned.

“You do realize we have other facilities,” Maion said arrogantly.

“I’m sure... you do,” T scowled up at her, “But... you don’t have this one... anymore.”

~

M sat cross legged on one of the couches in the common area on Art. She leaned back against the back staring up through the window on the ceiling, without really seeing anything. She heard the lift door open and looked up to see C and S walk into the common area.

“Hey, you’re finally out of the med lab,” M greeted C and smiled at S as her own greeting. “How are you feeling?”

“Uh, well physically I’m all right,” C said sitting next to her on the couch and giving M a sad smile, “How are you?”

“Pretty much the same,” M said. It was the only thing she could really say. She and T hadn’t been in a relationship for very long. Still she couldn’t help, but feel like she had lost something important. With all three of them in the common area, it didn’t feel quite like someone was missing. As though, T was going to emerge from the lift or poke her head around the corner from her room. C leaned in and gave her a hug which M returned. S cleared her throat and M and C looked over to her. S stood in the center of the room playing with a small disk in her hand. S let out a long, shaky breath.

“So every time we lose a member we have to look at one of these,” S held up the little disk. “This is the file containing their true identity. We need to be able to know who they were so we can inform their family. I know neither of you have been through this before, but I have so I’ll walk you through it. So...” 

“No,” M snapped. S and C turned to her. “She’s not dead! You heard her- you heard her tell me…” M looked to the other two as though she thought her point was obvious.

“I don’t really remember anything,” C said sadly.

“I heard her, I did. She told to leave, to get us out, it’s the last thing she could do to save us,” S’s eyes were pleading, begging M to understand.

“No!” M jumped up, “You don’t- you don’t understand. I told her, ages ago. I told her about someone who hurt me, who manipulated me, and she said she would never do that, she would never… she promised she wouldn’t hurt me. She’s alive. She has to be. She said, you get out, and then get the rest of us out. That has to mean that she’s alive and she wants us to rescue her! We can’t go through her file, we can’t… find out who she is, when we’re just going to get her back!” S and C exchanged a sad look. “Do not do that! This is not grief talking! I know! I know what she was saying.”

S sighed, “All right, say she is alive. That means Infinity has her and they want us to think she’s dead so we don’t go back for her. To fly under the radar, to make sure they don’t think we suspect. We still have to act like she’s gone. We have to do everything we would normally do because, no matter how small, no matter how protected we think we are on this ship.”

“You believe me?” M asked, giving M a hopeful look.

“No,” S shook her head, “And I can’t, because if you’re wrong, and she is gone. I can’t go through this again.” M turned to C who looked up with tears in her eyes.

“I want to think you’re right, and I’ll look into it, I promise, but I’m with S. I can’t lose her twice.” M nodded and sat back down. She and C watched as S walked over to the table and inserted the disk into it. A small ball of light appeared in the center of the table. S cupped the ball in her hand and tossed it to the large screen. The light appeared on the screen and S walked over to stand in front of it.

“Art, show us the file on the current T,” S said. T’s picture appeared on the screen. It was obviously an official picture like on an ID, but T had a slight smirk on her face.

“Confidential,” Art’s robotic voice said.

“I give approval,” S said. They heard Art’s ping of recognition and one green light appeared over T’s picture on the screen. S turned back to the other two. “You each need to give approval.”

“I give approval,” C said. Once again the ping sounded and a second green light appeared to the right of the first. S and C turned to M who hesitated staring at T’s picture. Tears well up, but C grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“I give approval,” M said quietly. After a third ping and green light, T’s picture moved to the left hand side of the screen and information appeared on the right. The very top, in white bold letters, read ‘Nya Vostenson’. A tear rolls down M’s cheek. Just a few days ago she asked T her her name and now here it was staring at her from a file. Nothing would have changed if T had told her when M asked, but she would have preferred to find out then rather than just learning it now.

“Nya,” S said. M looked over at her and saw her wiping a tear off her cheek. She looked over to C and saw her cheeks were wet too. It was in that moment that M really realized how much this affect them. M may have had a different connection with her, but they had known her much longer than she had. Lived with her and saw her everyday and now she was gone.   
M squeezed C’s hand back, “We’ll get her back.” C turned so M could see her bright eyes. She gave M a shaky smile, but didn’t respond; didn’t even nod. C let go of M’s hand and stood up. She walked over to S and gave her a hug. S sank into and gripped her back. They stood like that for moment before S pulled away.

“I can take care of contacting her family,” S tried to sound calm, but her voice cracked, “I’ve done it before.”

“I’ll do it with you,” C said.

“I’ll help,” M nodded, “I don’t know what to say, but I’ll stay.”

“I can do the talking,” S assured her before turning back to the screen and finding the contact information.

“Wait, before we call,” C stopped her, “I need to tell you something and maybe we can even let her family know.” S exchanged a confused look and turned back to C. “So T mentioned that fail safe before we were attacked by security.”

“The one that blew up the station?” M asked leaning forward and resting her elbows on her legs. C had awoken briefly once that had arrived back on Art and told the other two about the demise of Infinity’s space station.

“Yes, but it didn’t just blow it up,” C took a deep breath. I took that bug that infected Art and programmed it with my own software. In the time it took us to fight and then escape it had more than enough time to mine their systems and transfer it to my holo-watch. I know pretty much everything that was going on in that station. And as soon I can put together on incriminating report, we can release it. Infinity will have a scandal the size of Tarek’s 10th moon.” C finished with a laugh, but the other two women just gaped at her. “Oh that’s really big, it’s a really big moon.” S and M didn’t laugh at C’s joke, but S looked slightly happier than before.

“So they’ll pay for what they did to T,” M said with an exhale, “The Authority will go after them, we could have T back in a month!”

“Not just her, but they’ll pay for everything they did to everyone who was on that station,” C petered off, both M and S knew she was thinking of Elitha.

“That’s something then,” M said simply. She appreciated what C was doing and that she was trying to make her feel better, but it just didn’t feel like enough. Granted, nothing, besides getting T back, probably would.

~

Maion’s heels clacked along the halls of a spaceship. Officially the ship registered as one of Infinity’s freighters carrying goods from one end of the galaxy to the other, but in reality it was one of her favorite research facilities. Stations can provide more room with a bigger staff, but this ship was constantly moving. She made sure her most promising test subjects were sent here. Even with her largest station blown to pieces, with this ship she could at least be sure it wasn’t too much of a set back.

She reached a large metal door and stood on a circular disk on the floor. A thin beam of light erupted right in front of her and travelled all around the perimeter of the disk. She heard a beep and the door in front of her split down the middle and each side pulled back to reveal a laboratory. Positioned in the middle of the room was a large holographic control panel where Dr. Blusha worked. Past that Maion looked up to a stasis tank standing on its end. Inside, T floated unconscious in green liquid. Covering the top of her head was a delicate grid of wires and metal intricately woven together. The clothes she wore on the station had been replaced with black shorts and a black sleeveless top. Just where the shirt met the shorts Maion could see a line of skin and the newly healed scar from where her security team had shot T just a few days earlier.

“She heals quickly,” Maion commented.

“Yes, I was very impressed. It should help our tests. I’m excited to see how much she can handle what we put her through,” Dr. Blusha observed with a hint of anticipation in their his voice.

“Are you ready to start?” Maion asked.

“Her vitals are holding steady in the stasis liquid,” Dr. Blusha tapped on different places on the holo-screen, “And I’ve successfully connected to her mind. We are ready at your word.” Maion nodded and looked back up to T.

“Good, then let’s begin.”


End file.
